Somebody to Lean On
by Emjen Enla
Summary: [Complete] The day Obi-Wan Kenobi was laid off from his dream job and his girlfriend refused to marry him should have been the worst day of his life. Strangely, Obi-Wan realized much later that terrible day had actually been lucky. [Modern AU, Anakin & Obi-Wan centric (friendship, no slash)]
1. Part One

**Title: Somebody to Lean On**

 **Author: Emjen Enla (Fanfiction)/emjen_enla (Wattpad)**

 **Teaser: The day Obi-Wan Kenobi was laid off from his dream job and his girlfriend refused to marry him should have been the worst day of his life. Strangely, Obi-Wan realized much later that terrible day had actually been lucky.**

 **Rating: PG-13/T**

 **Canon: Modern AU, contains elements of both Canons**

 **Timeline: doesn't work with actual Canon timelines**

 **Dominant Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Sheev Palpatine, appearances/mentions of various other characters**

 **Pairings: Anidala, Obitine, Obi-Wan/Ventress (what's this pairing's name? Obitress, maybe?)**

 **POV(s): Obi-Wan**

 **Warnings: character death, angst**

 **Notes:**

 **-This story will be a couple parts long. I'm hoping for three, but it might be four depending on how big the middle part ends up being.**

 **-I've skewed characters' ages as well as some of their relationships with each other, just a warning.**

 **-Because this is a modern AU set on Earth, all characters are human, regardless of their species in actual Canon.**

 **-Ahsoka's description and what Chewie is in this story are inspired by other fanfictions. Ahsoka's from a story or two by katierosefun. Chewie's from a story by TheAddict4Dramatics.**

 **-Title is from the song** _ **Somebody to Lean On**_ **.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own** _ **Star Wars**_ **or** _ **Somebody to Lean On**_ **.**

* * *

The day Obi-Wan Kenobi was laid off from his dream job and his girlfriend refused to marry him should have been the worst day of his life. Strangely, Obi-Wan realized much later that terrible day had actually been lucky.

Of course, he hadn't had the benefit of that knowledge at the time. At the time, it seemed like the world was ending.

He had just finished his second year of teaching sixth grade at Stewjon Middle School. He couldn't think of a job that would make him happier. History had been his passion for as long as he could remember and he was finally in the position to pass on his knowledge to bright eyed children.

He was also going out with Asajj Ventress, who he'd met when he literally knocked her down in at the grocery store like people only do in books. Within weeks, Obi-Wan was head-over-heals in love. None of his friends liked Asajj, they said she was "haughty" and "dark," but he didn't care. He and Asajj were perfect for each other, he was sure of it. So he bought a ring and went about trying to find the perfect moment to propose.

Then things went bad. SMS didn't make their standardized test scores, and that meant funding cuts, which lead to lay-offs. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan had the least seniority, which meant he was first to go.

Still he'd held out hope that the day would get better, after all, he and Asajj were going out for dinner that night, and he was going to pop the question.

They'd gone out to eat. Asajj had looked beautiful. Obi-Wan had got down on one knee, showed her the ring and asked her to marry him.

She'd said no, got up, and walked away.

He didn't hear from her again.

* * *

He tried to move on. It was hard when your living room was full of boxes from your classroom and you were still making payments on a ring you bought for a girl who didn't want the same thing you did.

He pawned the ring as quickly as he could. He was still making payments, but at least he didn't have to look at the thing anymore. He tried the same method with his school stuff, by piling it in the guest bedroom and shutting the door.

He didn't even bother looking for new teaching jobs near Stewjon. He couldn't keep driving by SMS every day or running into people who asked about Asajj (especially since it seemed like he was the only person who _hadn't_ known things with her weren't going to last). So he looked for jobs far away so he had an excuse to move.

Still the summer went by and he was starting to get worried. He needed a job, he had student loans, payments on the ring and rent to pay, he couldn't keep living off his savings.

So that was why when he was offered the job at Works Elementary in Coruscant he had no choice but to accept.

This new job was not his first choice for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Coruscant was a big city and the school he would be teaching at was in the Works, which was not the nicest part of the city. Secondly, the position was teaching kindergarten, with the possibility of moving up to middle school later.

Obi-Wan was certified to teach kindergarten, but he'd never wanted to actually do it. It wasn't that he didn't like kids, he did; e was just a little uncomfortable with the idea of actually _teaching_ kids that little.

Still he had no choice, so he packed up and moved to Coruscant.

* * *

His first day of teaching at WES was a bit hectic. He had a classroom of five-year-olds to deal with, several of whom didn't like the idea of being separated from their parents and left with Obi-Wan. Then one his new pupils named Han and his best friend, Lando, showed up with Han's huge Newfoundland dog, Chewie, and scared half the class witless.

Obi-Wan wasn't even sure where to begin fixing the mess, but then a pretty blonde woman pushed her way through the crowd of children to him. "I'll take the dog to the office," she said, "I'm on my way there anyway."

Obi-Wan stuttered his thanks and she left.

So he calmed all the children and got Han and Lando to their seats. He was thankful he'd given them spots far apart and made a mental note to make sure it stayed that way. By the time that was done, it was almost eight and he was still missing two students. He was just starting to panic about what to do when he looked up and noticed two children standing in the door, looking like they weren't sure if they should come in.

One was a boy, blonde and blue-eyed wearing a white shirt and tan pants, the other was a dark haired, dark-eyed girl in a white dress. When Obi-Wan approached them, she stepped forward. "My name is Leia Skywalker, this is my twin brother, Luke," she said with surprising maturity. "We're in kindergarten with Mr. Kenobi, is this the right classroom?"

Some of Obi-Wan's tension vanished. These were his two missing students.

"Yes, you're in the right place," he said and looked out into the hall. "Do you have a parent here?"

"Our dad dropped us off," Luke said with the same maturity. "But he couldn't stay. He had to get to work."

"Alright," Obi-Wan said pushing aside a swell of annoyance. "We'll just find your seats, then."

* * *

The rest of the day progressed much like that. Han, Obi-Wan decided, was going to be his biggest problem. When school was over, Obi-Wan released his students to their parents. Luke and Leia were the last students left, and they sat quietly together working on a coloring page.

"Who's coming to pick you up?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Ahsoka is," Luke said without looking up.

"Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan repeated.

"That's me," a voice said, and Obi-Wan turned to see a high school-aged girl with bright blue streaks in her white-blonde hair standing in the doorway to the classroom. She waved, "Did their dad tell you about me?"

"Uh…no," Obi-Wan didn't know what else to say. "I haven't actually met their father yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Figures. Anyway, I'm Ahsoka Tano. I'm the twins' babysitter. I'll be picking them up every day but Wednesday. Their dad gets out of work early that day and will pick them up himself."

The twins noticed Ahsoka. "Hi, Ahsoka!" Luke darted over to her. "We had a lot of fun! Look at this picture I colored for Dad!"

Ahsoka studied the picture. "That's great, Luke," she smiled. "Let's get yours and Leia's stuff and head home."

* * *

Once the twins and Ahsoka were gone, Obi-Wan allowed himself time to take a deep breath, then began cleaning up. He'd only succeeded in picking up the crayons when he realized he wasn't alone anymore. The blonde woman who'd taken Chewie off his hands was standing in the doorway, watching him.

"Oh," he felt himself turn red. "I didn't see you. Have you been standing there long?"

She shook her head. "No, I was just stopping by to see how you were faring."

"Well…" Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair and looked around the classroom. "I'm alive."

She gave him a brilliantly white smile. "That you are. Is this your first time teaching?"

"First time teaching kindergarten," Obi-Wan said. "My last job was teaching sixth graders."

She let out a little laugh. "That's a big jump. Maybe you should have got the aide even though my class is bigger."

"What?" Obi-Wan blinked.

She smiled bigger "Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Satine Kryze. I teach the other kindergarten class."

For what felt like forever, Obi-Wan couldn't speak. When he managed to choke his voice back to life, all he could get out was a stumbling, "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

She didn't laugh at him. "It's nice to meet you," she said. "If you ever need any help, my classroom's right next door."

* * *

He survived the next day. That was about all Obi-Wan could say. He went home after school, fell asleep on his couch and didn't wake up until ten thirty at night. What could he say? Kindergarteners were exhausting.

Then it was Wednesday. School was over and, Luke and Leia were again the last children there. Today they were off in a corner playing with blocks and Obi-Wan was beginning to clean up. He heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see a tired-looking young man leaning against the doorframe.

"Can I help you?" Obi-Wan asked walking over.

"Hello," the man—boy really—said. "I'm here for Luke and Leia Skywalker."

For a second Obi-Wan wasn't sure how to react. Ahsoka had said the twins' father would be picking them up on Wednesdays, but surely this man wasn't old enough to be their father. Unsure what else to do, he jumped to the only other logical explanation he could think of. "Are you their brother?"

The young man bit his lip. "Um…no. I'm their father."

"Oh," Obi-Wan's face heated up with embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just-"

The twins' father waved a hand. "It's fine. You're not the first person to make that mistake," he held out a hand. "I'm Anakin Skywalker."

Obi-Wan took the hand and shook it. "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

By this point, the twins had noticed their father's arrival.

"Daddy!" Leia flew over. Skywalker bent down and she threw her arms around his neck.

"Hey, Princess," he said. "How are you?"

"Good," Leia said. "We made rainbow pictures with paints today."

"See, Daddy!" Luke—who had scampered over to the window retrieve his picture—held it up for Skywalker to see.

"That's great, Luke," Skywalker reached out with his left hand to ruffle the boy's hair. Obi-Wan noticed a gold ring on his ring finger. So the man was married, he was still so young, though.

Luke nodded. "Can we get Chinese takeout tonight?" he asked.

"We had Chinese last week," Skywalker said.

"Can we have it again, Dad?" Luke pleaded. "I like Chinese!"

Skywalker sighed. "Fine. Come on. Let's go home."

* * *

"Need some help with that?" Satine said the next Wednesday when she entered the office to find Obi-Wan struggling with the copy machine.

Obi-Wan gritted his teeth in frustration. "I don't understand what's wrong. I've been using this thing for a week now and it always worked for me before."

"It's probably jammed," Satine said stepping over and beginning to open the drawers. "It does that all the time. Principal Windu swears it jammed the very day we got it."

"Oh," Obi-Wan said lamely.

"So," Satine said as she worked on the copier, "how have things been going?"

"Well enough," Obi-Wan said. "I'm still getting the hang of dealing with a room full of little kids."

"You'll do fine," she said. "I've seen you with your kids. You're really good with them."

Thankfully, she had her head stuffed inside of a copier because Obi-Wan was pretty sure his face turned as red as his beard.

Before he could think of something to say that wouldn't sound awkward the office door opened and Principal Windu came in. He served the scene before him. "Copier jammed again?"

"Yeah," Satine tossed several crumpled copies of the worksheet Obi-Wan had been printing into a nearby recycling bin.

Principal Windu rolled his eyes. "Great. That couldn't have happened a couple hours from now when the school board's here. I keep trying to convince them that we need a new copier, but they think I'm exaggerating when I tell them how often it jams."

Obi-Wan's stomach clenched. "The school board's coming?"

For the first time he noticed that Principal Windu was dressed in a suit. "Yeah," Principal Windu said, running a hand over his bald head. "They are."

"Is Yoda coming?" Satine asked, something tense about her voice.

"Yup," Principal Windu replied.

Satine banged her head on the copier.

"Who's Yoda?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Only the most insufferable man to ever live," Satine said.

Obi-Wan looked to Principal Windu who nodded in agreement. "You'll understand once you meet him, Obi-Wan."

* * *

Obi-Wan saw nothing of the school board for the whole day, which was fine with him. The farther he stayed from the people making the actual decisions around WES the better.

It was a half hour after school had ended and Luke and Leia Skywalker were the last students left in the classroom, as they always seemed to be. It took Ahsoka some time to leave the high school and get to the elementary school. However, this was Wednesday, and the twins' father seemed to run even later than Ahsoka did, the twins had been almost ten minutes late that morning as well.

Obi-Wan was washing up some paint trays with help from Luke when Anakin Skywalker finally arrived. Leia—who had refused to help with the dishes—darted across the room to hug her father. Luke put aside the last tray very carefully then followed his sister. Obi-Wan walked closer to the family, feeling awkward but thinking that standing in a corner would be even more awkward.

"Are you feeling better, Daddy?" Leia asked then looked up at Obi-Wan. "He was feeling yucky this morning."

Skywalker's lips pursed; he mustn't have wanted Leia to mention that in front of Obi-Wan. "I'm fine, Princess. It was just a headache."

Leia bit her lip, she was worried about Skywalker. Leia was a smart girl and mature one, whatever had happened must have been more serious than her father was letting on. "Is it gone now?" she asked very quietly.

"Yeah," Skywalker gave her a one-armed hug. "It's gone, Sweetie."

However, Obi-Wan wasn't convinced Skywalker was telling the truth. Now that he knew to look, Obi-Wan thought the young man looked rather peaked. His ashen pallor accented the blue circles under his eyes. He was not feeling well, anyone who had eyes and wasn't five years old would be able to see it.

Skywalker stood up. "Let's get your backpacks and head home," that was an obvious attempt to change the subject, but Obi-Wan didn't point it out. He just went to help the twins with their backpacks.

They were almost ready to leave when Luke looked to the doorway and cocked his head. "Who are you?" he asked.

They all turned to see the oddest looking man Obi-Wan had ever seen standing just inside the room. He was short, hunched and wearing an ancient brown suit. He was almost completely bald aside from a fringe of hair around the back of his head. He leaned heavily on a cane that looked like an old stick.

The man gave Luke a wrinkled smile. "Good to see you, it is. Thought not going to see any children, we were, and sad that would be."

Obi-Wan and Skywalker exchanged a confused look.

"Mr. Yoda, I am," the man said to the twins, who stood together studying him. "Like children, I do."

Obi-Wan noticed Principal Windu and a group of well-dressed people he assumed were the rest of the school board standing in the doorway of the classroom. They all wore looks of intense frustration.

"Very old, I am," Yoda was telling the twins. "Been on the school board for a long time, I have. Never see the children, we do. Always makes me unhappy, it does."

Leia frowned at Yoda for a minute, then she drew herself up to her full height and said very clearly, "Mr. Yoda, you're strange."

The little color that remained in the Skywalker's face drained immediately. "Leia!" he gasped.

Yoda smiled at Skywalker. "Worry not. Offended, I am not. Refreshing, it is to hear one so honest," he studied Skywalker for a second then announced, "Tired, you look. Get more sleep, you should."

"Thanks for the tip," Skywalker said tightly.

Principal Windu (who until this moment had been caught in the throes of silent laughter along with the school board) cleared his throat. "Mr. Yoda, we really should get on with the tour."

Yoda nodded slowly then smiled at Skywalker and the twins. "Nice to meet you, it was," he said. "See you again, I hope to," and he left with the rest of the school board and Principal Windu in tow.

For several minutes Obi-Wan, Skywalker and the twins just stood in dead silence, then Skywalker shook his head. "He…" he said, "was probably the strangest person I've ever met."

Obi-Wan stared at him for a few blank seconds then they both burst into hysterical laughter.

* * *

Several months passed in much the same way the first few weeks of school did. Obi-Wan quickly got the hang of teaching young children and soon began to actually enjoy going to work every day. Even Han and Lando—who were constantly causing problems—were sweet kids once you got to know them.

That was different than saying Obi-Wan didn't miss his old job (it had been his dream job after all) and that he didn't have problems. He did, and money was beginning to become a big one.

He wasn't making as much at WES as he had at SMS and he had rent and college loans and the payments on that ring he'd bought for Asajj to deal with. He'd started riding the subway to and from work so he didn't have to fill up his car anymore. He thought about just selling the car and using the money to pay off the ring bill, but if he did that he'd be stuck in Coruscant. Granted, Coruscant was a huge city, but all his family and friends lived in other places and he wasn't quite ready to reside himself to not being able to visit them.

Still he needed to find a way to make some more money, he just wasn't sure what.

* * *

As the months went by, Obi-Wan began to realize that he might not be the only people having problems. The twins came back to school after Christmas Break bouncing with happiness, but by midway through the week something had change.

His first indication was when Skywalker came to pick the twins up on a Tuesday. The twins were as confused about this as Obi-Wan was.

"Don't you have to work today, Daddy?" Luke asked.

Skywalker was pale and drawn. There was an almost dazed look on his face, one that came from someone trying to function normally after a massive shock. "I'm not going to work today, Luke," he said, his voice flat.

"Why?" Leia asked.

"Later," Skywalker said, "Come on, let's go."

The second indication came the next day when the twins were almost an hour late for school. Skywalker walked them into the classroom and apologized profusely for their tardiness claiming that he'd overslept. However, the man was so disheveled and tired-looking Obi-Wan found himself wondering Skywalker had slept at all.

Number three was just after lunch. Obi-Wan was helping Leia with a project, when she said quite suddenly, "I'm glad my daddy doesn't have a car."

"What?" Obi-Wan asked. "What are you talking about, Leia?"

"Daddy doesn't have a car," she said. "When he needs to go somewhere he rides the subway, and that makes me happy because if people drive cars when they're sleepy they get in crashes," tears welled up in her eyes. "And my daddy's sleepy all the time!" she burst into tears and buried her face in Obi-Wan's chest.

Obi-Wan gently petted Leia's hair. "Leia, what's wrong?"

She shook her head.

"Do you have a car, Mr. Kenobi?" Luke asked quietly from Obi-Wan's other side.

Obi-Wan wanted to focus on Leia, but when she heard Luke's question she stopped crying and looked up at Obi-Wan, so he figured it would be okay to answer.

"Yes, I do," he said.

Identical looks of horror came over the twins' faces. "Don't crash, Mr. Kenobi!" Luke wailed and then they were both crying.

* * *

Skywalker picked the twins up on Wednesday and again on Thursday. By this point the man looked so exhausted he seemed more likely to collapse where he stood then actually be able to perform any meaningful task.

The twins were focused on a tower of blocks when he arrived on Thursday and didn't notice him come in. Obi-Wan was about to say something when Skywalker pressed a finger to his lips and motioned him over. Obi-Wan followed the twins' father out of the classroom.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Skywalker ran a hand through his hair. "I need to ask you something and I don't want them to hear it, because I haven't gotten around to telling them this yet."

"Telling them what?" Obi-Wan asked.

Skywalker sighed and leaned heavily against the lockers. "Ahsoka's not going to be able to babysit the twins anymore. She's…there's an emergency in her family and she's not going to be in Coruscant for the rest of the year. She might be back by next fall, but I'm not sure.

"As you may have already figured out," Skywalker continued, "I have two jobs. I get home at 12:30 to one in the morning most nights. I need to find a babysitter for the twins who is old enough and responsible enough to care for them until I get home."

"I'll do it," the words were out of Obi-Wan's mouth before he had time to think.

Skywalker blinked. "Well, I…"

Obi-Wan couldn't believe he'd just said that. Obviously Skywalker had been hoping for a high school kid, Obi-Wan a grown man. Yes, he needed money, but babysitting was normally for teenagers.

Skywalker considered Obi-Wan carefully. "You're really interested?"

"I…" Obi-Wan considered backing out, but decided that he'd already committed. "If you're not opposed to it, yes."

"I won't be able to pay you very much," Skywalker said. "And its long hours."

"I can do it," Obi-Wan said, "I just need a little extra money, that's all."

Skywalker bit his lip. "Well, the twins do like you…" he mused. "They might deal with the change better than if I found a total stranger…Do you really want the job?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "If you're willing to offer it to me."

Skywalker sighed then let out a breathy laugh. "Honestly, Mr. Kenobi, I'm too tired to care."

* * *

That Saturday at five thirty Obi-Wan found himself in the subway station nearest to WES waiting for Anakin Skywalker. He was going to take Obi-Wan to the apartment where they lived before Obi-Wan began babysitting the next week.

He still wasn't sure what he'd gotten himself into. Part of him was deathly terrified that he'd forced his services onto Skywalker but Obi-Wan really did need the money.

He couldn't help but wonder about the things that didn't make since about the whole situation. Skywalker said that he had two jobs, which logically meant he worked first and second shift. It had sounded like both jobs were full time, and the second shift one definitely was. Obi-Wan had never heard of someone working two full time jobs, was Skywalker insane?

There was also the issue of the twins' mother. Skywalker wore a wedding ring, so Obi-Wan had assumed he was married. However, he'd never heard the twins mention their mother, and from the way Skywalker had been talking it sounded like he was alone. So what was going on there?

He looked up and saw Skywalker threading through the crowds towards him. Obi-Wan rose from the bench he'd been sitting on and waved. Skywalker reached him within minutes and gave him a tired smile. "Hello, Mr. Kenobi. I hope this day finds you well?"

"It does," Obi-Wan said. "You?"

Skywalker shrugged. "Well I actually got some sleep last night. That has to count for something."

"It does," Obi-Wan said.

They boarded a subway and hung onto the overhead rails. Skywalker leaned against the railing and didn't say anything. When Obi-Wan looked over a couple minutes later, the young man's eyes were drooping closed.

"You alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

Skywalker shook himself then laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you. I fell asleep on the subway last night and woke up in the political district. That's an hour ride from the apartment."

"I thought you said you slept last night," Obi-Wan said.

"I did," Skywalker answered. "Comparatively. I've spent a lot of time with Ahsoka's family these last couple days."

"What happened?" Obi-Wan asked. "If you can tell me."

"Ahsoka's older sister got in a car accident," Skywalker ran a hand over his face. "She's going to live, but…but the doctors think she'd paralyzed…permanently."

Obi-Wan's jaw dropped. "That's terrible."

Skywalker nodded. "Barriss is only a couple years younger than I am. She was going to college in Shili. She's at the hospital there and it might be a very long time before they can move her. That's why Ahsoka can't babysit for a while. Her parents are going to Shili to be with Barriss and Ahsoka's going along. I think she's even switching schools," Skywalker sighed. "The twins are really beat up about the whole thing. Barriss had pulled an all-nighter and was driving back to campus from her job. Apparently, she fell asleep behind the wheel."

That explained the twins' sudden fear of cars and their worry for their father. Obi-Wan nodded because he didn't know what else to do. "I'm sorry."

The subway slowed to a stop. "This is where we get off," Skywalker said. "Come on."

* * *

Once they were on the platform, Skywalker led Obi-Wan towards a stairway up to street level. "We're going to have to walk a couple blocks before we get to the apartment building," Skywalker explained. "You okay with that?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "It's your place we're going to, Mr. Skywalker."

Skywalker stopped on the steps and turned to look down at Obi-Wan. "Do me a favor, and just call me Anakin? When you say 'Mr. Skywalker' it sounds like I'm an old man or something, and I'm not."

"Fine," Obi-Wan said. "But only if you stop calling me 'Mr. Kenobi.' I'm not an old man either."

Skywalker—no _Anakin_ —laughed. "Alright, Obi-Wan. Alright."

* * *

The apartment building they arrived at was much older than Obi-Wan had thought it would be. It towered up in several stories of old bricks. Each apartment had a dingy balcony that were often piled with random things owned by the people living inside.

Anakin must have seen Obi-Wan staring because he smiled slowly. "Don't worry. It's not as bad as it looks. Trust me."

"Alright," Obi-Wan swallowed. "I'll take your word for it."

"We'll go up the back stairs," Anakin said. "That way we won't run into the landlady. She's not a bad person, per se, she's just in a perpetual bad mood."

They climbed up the back stairs to the fourth floor. Anakin stopped before a door partway down the hall and twisted the knob. "This is our apartment. Ahsoka's family lives across the hall," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "However, that won't be for much longer. Luminara—Ahsoka's mom—is already in Shili. Ahsoka and Plo—that's her dad—plan to get everything out of the apartment and head out by Monday."

Obi-Wan nodded, and Anakin opened the door.

The door opened into a small front room with a couch, a coffee table, a bookshelf and TV. The wall opposite the door had a sliding glass door to the balcony. On the left side of room were three doors. The closer two were closed, but the last was half open and Obi-Wan could see a set of bunkbeds and a couple stuffed animals inside. There were two doorways on the right side of the room. One right next to the door, which might have been a closet. The other door was just a doorway which looked like it lead into a small kitchen. The front room was impeccably clean and organized, in fact Obi-Wan didn't think he'd ever been a house this clean.

The twins were sitting on the floor, playing a board game that they'd set up on the coffee table. A very tired and sad Ahsoka was curled up on the couch watching them.

When the twins noticed them come in they abandoned their game and dashed over. "Hello, Mr. Kenobi!" Leia squealed. "Welcome to our house!"

"Come on! Let us show you around!" Luke cried, bouncing up and down with happiness. "That's Dad's room," he pointed at the first closed door. "That's the bathroom, and that's mine and Leia's room!"

Ahsoka sat up and ran a hand through her hair, laughing at the twins' enthusiasm. "I took out their toys again," she said to Anakin. "I will never understand why you hide ninety percent of the stuff in this place whenever you clean. No one cleans like you do, Skyguy."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Glad you feel is necessary to mock my habits around our company, Snips," he turned to Obi-Wan. "My father was very particular about keeping his house pristine at all times. He liked to be able to bring his important friends over at a moment's notice and show off his perfect house and—if he was in a really good mood—his perfect son."

That was a strange turn of phrase, but Obi-Wan didn't have time to ask about it, because the twins were dragging him off to give him a more complete tour of the house.

* * *

Several minutes later, they were sitting on the floor in the twins' room. The twins were in the process of introducing Obi-Wan to their stuffed animals. Anakin came to stand in the doorway. "We're ordering pizza," he told Obi-Wan. "Do you have any requests?"

"No," Obi-Wan said. "Whatever you order is fine."

"Alright," Anakin turned to talk to Ahsoka, and the twins darted out of the room. When Anakin turned back to Obi-Wan, he chuckled softly. "They're probably going to go beg Ahsoka to order breadsticks," he said. "They know I won't buy them, but they can usually guilt trip her into doing it," he shrugged. "I guess it won't hurt if they get them tonight."

He bent down and picked one of the stuffed animals up off the floor. He studied it for a minute then set it carefully on the lower bunk. Then he picked up another. Obi-Wan watched as he carefully arranged the stuffed animals on the bed, biggest to smallest.

When he finished picking up the stuffed animals, Anakin turned and saw Obi-Wan watching. He let out a breathy little laugh. "Yeah, if I start randomly cleaning again, yell at me or something. It's a really weird habit, and I need to break it."

Obi-Wan looked around the twins' small, but homey room. "How long have you been living here?" he asked shifting into a more comfortable position on the floor.

"We've been in this apartment for about three and a half years," Anakin said, leaning back against the upper bunk. "When the twins were first born we spent a year living in my best friend's basement—well his family's basement, technically. After that I…I couldn't stand living in that city anymore, so we moved to Coruscant. We spent just under six months in probably the most disgusting apartment I've ever seen in my life, then we moved here."

"You aren't from Coruscant?" Obi-Wan asked.

"No," Anakin answered. "I'm from Naboo, originally."

Obi-Wan was surprised, Naboo was one of the richest cities in the country. Saying you were from Naboo was the same as saying you were upper middleclass at the absolute poorest. Obi-Wan found himself wondering how Anakin had gone from that to living in this apartment and working two jobs.

Anakin was studying him. "I can tell what you're thinking," he smiled. "To answer your unspoken question, when the twins and I moved here I was practically broke," he made a face. "My father wasn't happy when he figured out about the twins and their mom."

That was the first mention Obi-Wan had heard of Luke and Leia's mother. "Where is the twins' mother?" he asked. "I see that you're wearing a ring, but…"

He trailed off when he saw the look that had come across Anakin's face. The young man had gone from good-humored to completely closed off. His lips were pressed together in a thin line.

"No," he said sharply. "We're not talking about this," then he turned and walked out of the bedroom.

Obi-Wan sat on the floor, wondering what about his question could have caused that reaction. He hadn't meant to upset the twins' father.

"Its okay, Mr. Kenobi," Obi-Wan looked up to see the twins standing in the bedroom door.

"Daddy, doesn't like talking about Mommy," Leia said.

"Oh," Obi-Wan said. "I didn't realize. I should apologize, I didn't mean to hurt him." He started to get up

"Our mommy's name was Padmé," Luke said suddenly, blue eyes very wide. "She died when we were really little."

* * *

 **There is part one! I'm hoping to get part two out soon. If I don't get it out in a week or two, start bugging me about it.**

 **Every time** **I do a nontraditional timeline AU, I make Yoda a crazy old man no one wants anything to do with. I think that's kind of funny. ;)**

 **Hopefully all the Yoda-speak makes sense...**

 **Please follow, favorite and review! (I'd really appreciate it.)**

 **Emjen**


	2. Part Two

**_Part Two_**

That Monday, the twins helped Obi-Wan clean up the classroom. Then Obi-Wan put all the papers he needed to grade in his bag and they left the school. The twins danced around him refusing to hold his hands except when they crossed the streets. "We go their way all the time, Mr. Kenobi!" Leia called. "We're not going to wander off!"

They also kept telling him what subway train to get on and what stop to get off at. That, Obi-Wan was secretly thankful for, because his mind blanked when he needed the information, even though Anakin had told him on Saturday and Obi-Wan had been repeating it over and over to himself ever since.

Eventually, they arrived at the apartment. Obi-Wan let them in and turned on the lights. The twins dropped their backpacks on the couch and ran towards their bedroom.

"Shouldn't you do your homework before you play?" Obi-Wan asked.

"We always do homework after dinner," Luke said.

"Daddy says we should play while it's light outside," Leia agreed.

"Alright…" Obi-Wan wasn't sure if they were telling the truth or not, but he'd never known either twin to lie. He figured as long as they got their homework done it didn't matter when they did it.

However, as the twins vanished into their bedroom, he couldn't keep from laughing at the absurdity of having to make sure his own students got the homework _he_ had assigned done.

* * *

An hour and a half later, Luke and Leia came into the kitchen to find Obi-Wan cooking.

"What are you making?" Luke asked, bouncing over.

"Spaghetti," Obi-Wan answered.

"Cool!" Leia squealed. "We like homemade food!"

Obi-Wan couldn't keep from giving her a strange look.

"Ahsoka can't cook," Leia explained. "Dad can, but he doesn't have time."

That explained why there was barely anything in the refrigerator and cupboards. Obi-Wan vowed to take the twins grocery shopping after school the next day. They were going to eat homemade food, if he had anything to say about it.

* * *

The rest of the night went well. The twins got their homework done, and Obi-Wan made some mental notes for himself about how to make his worksheets easier to understand. There were no problems until it was time for bed. Obi-Wan asked the twins if they normally listened to a story before they slept. The twins said they did and pointed out the children's chapter book that Ahsoka had been reading to them.

Not bothering to think if it would be wise, Obi-Wan picked up the book and found the page Ahsoka had been at. He'd began to read, but within minutes both Luke and Leia had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

"We miss Ahsoka!" Luke wailed.

Obi-Wan cursed himself for being so thoughtless. Just because the twins appeared to be holding up under the massive changes that had occurred in their lives didn't mean they were totally fine.

He stood up so he was level with Luke's upper bunk and ran a hand through the boy's hair. "I know you do," he said in as soothing of a voice as he could manage. "And I know Ahsoka misses you too,"

Leia rolled over and peered up at him, tears running down her face. "Will we ever see her again?"

"I'm sure you will," Obi-Wan said even though he had no idea if that was something he could actually promise. Right now he just needed the twins to calm down.

"Will she be our babysitter again?" Luke asked.

It was just a little hurtful to hear that, but Obi-Wan reminded himself that Ahsoka had probably been babysitting the twins as long as they could remember. Having her vanish and a virtual stranger take her place couldn't have been easy for them.

"I'm sure she'd love to," he promised and turned back to the bookshelf. "Now, do you two want me to read a different book?"

* * *

Obi-Wan woke up to the sound of a door opening. For an instant he was confused about why someone was coming into his house, but then he remembered where he was.

He sat up on the couch in the Skywalker apartment. Anakin Skywalker had just let himself in and was shaking the snow off his jacket. Obi-Wan had the lights off save for the ones in the bathroom so the apartment was mostly dark. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall above the TV, it was 12:38 am.

"It's snowing outside," Anakin said gruffly and somewhat unnecessarily as he hung his coat up in the closet. "Is that going to cause you trouble getting home?"

"I don't think so," Obi-Wan stretched and stood. "I rode the subway to work today and then rode it here, so it's not like I'll be driving."

Anakin nodded. The man looked exhausted, per usual. "Did you have any problems?" he asked.

"They miss Ahsoka," Obi-Wan admitted, deciding not to mention to book incident. "But that's understandable."

"They were good for you, right?" Anakin asked.

"They were," Obi-Wan said. "They're sweet kids."

Anakin smiled. "They are." He moved to cross the room.

"I made spaghetti for supper," Obi-Wan said. "There are some leftovers."

Anakin stopped in the bathroom doorway and frowned at the floor. He stood that way for almost a minute.

"Is something wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I'm trying to remember if I ate supper," Anakin said pressing a fist to his lips.

Obi-Wan stared at him.

"That has happened before," Anakin said like that wasn't even a slight problem.

Obi-Wan was less willing to see it that way. "If you can't remember if you ate that probably means you should."

Anakin thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. "You're probably right."

Obi-Wan followed him to the kitchen and stood awkwardly in the doorway while Anakin warmed himself up a plate of spaghetti. Neither of them said anything for several minutes. Anakin ate and Obi-Wan wondered if he should leave.

"This is good spaghetti," Anakin said off-handedly, breaking the silence. "Almost as good as Shaak's."

Obi-Wan tried to figure out who that was from context. "Who?"

"Shaak Ti," Anakin said between bites. "She was our housekeeper. She practically raised me."

Had he just said _housekeeper_? "What about…your parents?" Obi-Wan asked carefully.

"My father couldn't be bothered to do anything but yell at me for messing up the house and accuse me of going to drinking parties—the former I knew better than to do, and the latter I never had any interest in," Anakin explained, sounding strangely nonchalant. "Mom died of cancer when I was nine. I barely remember her," Anakin's aura of calm crumbled a little when he talked about his mom.

"Anyway," Anakin went on. "Shaak took good care of me. She helped me with my homework, taught me to cook and kept me from getting into too much trouble with Tyranus."

"Tyranus?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin snorted. "Sorry. I'm talking about the butler. His real name was Dooku, but my friends and I called him Tyranus because he was, well, a tyrant. He was almost as bad as my father."

"Did you have a nickname for your father too?" Obi-Wan asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

Anakin's face stilled, the amused half-smile he'd been wearing while talking about Dooku melted off his face. "No. He would have figured out about it and been livid. He was strange like that," the look he gave Obi-Wan was one that begged for understanding. "If you didn't want him to know about something, he knew. Maybe not right away, but eventually he'd figure out and then…" Anakin shook his head, "well, use your imagination."

There was a long, roaring silence. Then Anakin cleared throat. "Well, that got awkward really fast," he set the empty plate in the sink, he laughed shakily. "Note to self: don't talk about important things late at night."

Obi-Wan felt like he needed to say something, but he didn't know what. Whatever had happened with Anakin's father was obviously a lot bigger than he'd originally thought. This was the moment when Obi-Wan should have said something comforting but he didn't know what to say.

He stood in silence while Anakin washed his dishes.

* * *

The next Wednesday, Obi-Wan was waiting for Anakin to come to pick up the twins. Obi-Wan would be going over to the apartment after dinner, because it turned out that Anakin did work on Wednesday nights, he just didn't have to go into work until later.

The twins were entertained with a puzzle when Satine came in rolling her eyes. "I just got done fixing the copier. Again! This is the third time this week!"

Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. "We really need a new copier."

"That's the understatement of the year," Satine groaned.

"How long did it take you to fix it?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Close to thirty minutes," Satine heaved out an annoyed breath. "You know," she said after a pause, "I have a sledgehammer in my garage at home. What if I were to bring it in to work, and we just hit the thing a couple times? We both know Principal Windu wouldn't mind; he'd probably dance for joy. It would just be a matter of convincing the school board it was an accident."

Obi-Wan laughed. "I can see it now. 'No, we have no idea how a sledgehammer ended up in the copier! It just fell! No, it's not Miss Kryze's. Why would she have brought it here?'"

"I'd make you use the sledgehammer. Then if everything went wrong, I'd just get in trouble for owning the thing," Satine giggled and punched him on the arm. Obi-Wan's heart stopped, but only for a second and in a very pleasant way.

Whatever little moment they'd been having was interrupted by the twins running to meet Anakin who apparently had just showed up. Satine excused herself and went back to her classroom. Anakin glanced at her as she walked out, then turned back to Obi-Wan and raised his eyebrows.

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

* * *

When Obi-Wan turned up at the apartment later that night, the twins were in the front room starting on their homework while Anakin did the dishes. Obi-Wan entered the kitchen and glanced at the time displayed on the microwave. "Don't you need to get going?" he asked.

Anakin glanced at the time. "I've got enough time to finish this."

Obi-Wan frowned at the time. "You're sure?"

"I am," Anakin said. "It's not like there's a lot of dishes."

Obi-Wan could tell he wasn't going to be able to argue. Apparently, Anakin had a strange desire to do dishes. Obi-Wan got a towel out from a cupboard and began drying the dishes and putting them away.

"Who was the blonde?" Anakin asked after a pause.

"Huh?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The blonde woman you were talking to this afternoon," Anakin said. "Who was she?"

"Oh," Obi-Wan said. "That's Satine Kryze. She's the other kindergarten teacher at WES."

Anakin nodded then glanced at Obi-Wan out of the corner of his eyes. "Have you asked her out yet?"

"What?" Obi-Wan spluttered. "What are you talking about?"

"Have you asked her out on a date?" Anakin turned to look at Obi-Wan. "She's obviously interested."

"She is?" Obi-Wan stuttered, unable to explain the sudden leaping feeling in his chest.

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Obi-Wan, you're like 35. You expect me to believe you've never had a girlfriend?"

"Thirty," Obi-Wan said. "And I have had a girlfriend, it just…didn't work."

"Oh…" Anakin said. "Do I want to know?"

The look on his said that he really did want to know, so Obi-Wan told him about Asajj and braced himself for the laughter that was the normal response when he told this story.

Anakin didn't laugh, for almost a minute he just stared at Obi-Wan then shook his head. "Wow. That's rough, buddy."

Obi-Wan wasn't sure how he should feel about the widower thinking that what had happened with Asajj was bad. He just cleared his throat and said, "Umm…Yeah, I guess it was."

Anakin shook his head. "At least Padmé agreed to marry me even if things didn't work out for a long time afterward," seeing the look on Obi-Wan's face he said, "She died a couple weeks after the twins were born. She was walking home from work on a Friday night, and she was hit by a car," Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan, his eyes narrowed in sudden anger. "The guy driving the car was drunk. He ran a red light and didn't see her until it was too late."

The first thing Obi-Wan thought was that story was a lot more terrible than what had happened with him and Asajj. He swallowed and tried to think of something to say. "I'm sorry."

They stood in silence for a long time, then Anakin took a deep breath. "Well, we were talking about how you need to get some romantic experience that doesn't end in a girl standing you up, not my young adult novel-worthy marriage. You need to ask this Satine girl out, if you don't I will bug you about it for the rest of your life. Understand?"

Obi-Wan stared at Anakin. Was he really being told to ask someone out? "Okay…" he said.

Anakin smiled. "Good."

* * *

"Umm…Satine…" Obi-Wan asked the next day when he ran into her by the copier. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," she said. "You look worried. What's going on?"

"I-" Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair. Had it been this hard to as Asajj out? He couldn't remember. "I was wondering if…"

"You were wondering if what?" Satine asked. "Are you okay, Obi-Wan?"

"I was wondering if you would like to go out with me," Obi-Wan burst out.

For one blank second, Satine just stared at him. _Oh, no._ Obi-Wan thought. _She's going to say no. This was a really bad idea. Why did I let Anakin talk me into this? This is going to be just like Asajj._

Then Satine broke into the biggest smile Obi-Wan had ever seen. "I would love too!" she exclaimed. "What were you thinking about doing?"

"Well…ah…we could…we could go to a movie," Obi-Wan stammered, then cursed himself for his foolishness. Asajj had always said that kind of date was cheap and cliché.

However Satine just graced him with a big smile. "That sounds great! When?"

* * *

The date wouldn't be until Sunday because that was the only day Obi-Wan didn't babysit. They could have gone on Saturday night, because while Anakin did work on Saturdays he was normally home by six. However Obi-Wan figured he'd need some time to mentally prepare without having to worry about the twins.

Even though Obi-Wan would never have thought to ask Satine out if Anakin hadn't pushed him, Obi-Wan couldn't help hoping that Anakin would forget all about it. It wasn't a complete impossibility, the man did seem to always have a million things on his mind; maybe Obi-Wan's love life was unimportant enough to slip through the cracks.

Unfortunately, that was not the case, because the first thing Anakin said to him after getting home from work that night was, "Well, did you ask her?"

Amazing that the man was still awake enough to ask about dates at almost one in the morning. "She said yes," Obi-Wan said. "We're going out on Sunday night."

Anakin beamed, suddenly looking far younger than he normally did, which was saying something. "See? What did I tell you?"

* * *

On Friday night, the twins finished their homework early. "What do you want to do now?" Obi-Wan asked. "I could read a book or we could watch a movie."

The twins looked at each other, thinking hard. Luke leaned in closer to Leia and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and whispered something back.

"What are you two talking about?" Obi-Wan asked.

Leia looked at Luke who nodded, then she turned to Obi-Wan and said, "We'd like to look at the photo album."

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The photo album," Luke pointed at a small maroon book on the top shelf of the bookcase. "Leia and I like to look at, but we can't reach it without a grown-up."

"Is your dad okay with you looking at it?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yes," Leia said.

"As long as we're careful," Luke agreed.

That sounded okay, so Obi-Wan went and took the album off the upper shelf. It wasn't extremely large and a layer of dust covered it, like it was rarely looked at. Obi-Wan couldn't help being surprised by its existence; he hadn't thought many people bothered to print pictures anymore.

By the time he set the album on the coffee table, the twins were bouncing up and down with excitement. The instant Obi-Wan sat down on the couch, Luke opened the album and pointed at a picture in the upper right-hand corner of the first page. "Look! That's our mommy!"

The picture was of Anakin at about seventeen giving a piggy back ride to a girl around the same age. She was clinging to Anakin's back with her arms wrapped around his neck. They were both laughing. The girl had dark eyes and curly dark brown hair, she looked a lot like Leia.

Obi-Wan studied the image more closely and noticed something just slightly strange. From what he could see, Padmé was dressed like any typical teenager would in the summer. Anakin however was wearing khakis, a dress-shirt and a vest. He looked like he should be going to some kind business meeting, not hanging out with friends.

Obi-Wan wanted to look at the rest of the pictures on the page, but the twins had already gotten bored with it and were turning to the next one. The picture that caught Obi-Wan's attention on this page was another picture of teenaged Anakin and two other boys his age. They were standing close together and smiling at the camera. Anakin was in the middle, on his right was a tall, lanky boy with black hair and silver-gray eyes, this boy was holding the camera (or maybe it was a cell phone) out in front of them. On Anakin's other side was a dark-eyed boy with short-cropped blonde hair. All three boys were the wearing basketball jerseys.

"Daddy played basketball in school," Luke explained. "He said that he'll teach me and Leia sometime."

However, the fact that Anakin had played basketball in high school was not the thing about the picture that captured Obi-Wan's attention. It was the uniforms themselves. Anakin and the other boys were wearing the colors and logo of Theed Academy. Obi-Wan had done a research paper on that school as an undergrad. Theed Academy was a private high school in Naboo and was one of the most elite prep schools in the county. The school was attended exclusively by the children of celebrities, politicians and CEOs as well as a couple very lucky scholarship students.

Now it seemed that Anakin had gone to that school. That had been something Obi-Wan hadn't been expecting, and now he had one burning question that he was starting to think he needed to solve:

 _Who is Anakin's father?_

* * *

"Luke, Leia. Wake up, it's time for bed."

Obi-Wan opened his eyes to find himself still sitting on the couch, with the photo album spread out over his knees and Luke and Leia curled up on either side of him fast asleep.

Anakin was leaning over them, shaking the twins awake.

"What time is it?" Obi-Wan muttered thickly.

"12:30," Anakin said, then turned his attention back to the twins. "Come on, you two need to get to bed."

Eventually Anakin got the sleepy twins on their feet and into the bathroom to brush their teeth. Obi-Wan hurried into the bedroom to get out their pajamas, his face was flaming red. How had he been so foolish? It was his job to make sure the twins did all normal things for small children and that included going to bed at a reasonable hour, how was he going to explain this?

By the time the twins were in bed, Obi-Wan had had enough time to work himself up into a fairly decent panic. He stayed in the bedroom for several minutes before he worked up the courage to head back into the front room. He found Anakin sitting on the couch looking at something in his lap. As Obi-Wan drew closer he saw that it was the photo album.

After the twins had fallen asleep but before he'd dozed off himself, Obi-Wan had gone through the album more thoroughly and looked closely at every picture. He'd studied the images of Anakin and Padmé's wedding (they'd been young, hardly older than they'd been in the first image Obi-Wan had seen of them). There'd been one picture of a very young Anakin (seven or eight, maybe) with a dark-haired woman who Obi-Wan assumed must have been Anakin's mother. There'd been pictures of the twins as babies, though the number of pictures with Anakin in them decreased sharply along with the last images of Padmé. When the twins were about one and half the quality of the pictures took a nose dive. If Obi-Wan had to guess, he would say that the pictures after this point were taken on the cheap track phone Anakin used, Obi-Wan couldn't help but wonder what had happened to whatever the earlier pictures had been taken with.

When Obi-Wan reached the back of the couch and could see what page Anakin was looking at, he saw that the young man was studying a picture that had captured Obi-Wan's attention while he was looking through the album. It was a picture of Anakin, the twins at a year old, the blonde boy from the basketball picture, a severe man with short, dark hair, a dark-haired boy several years older than Anakin and a ten-year-old boy.

Anakin glanced up at Obi-Wan, then pointed at the blonde boy. "This is Rex. He is— _was_ —my best friend. That's his dad, Jango, who was our basketball coach, and Rex's brothers, Cody and Boba. Jango's wife, Zam, was taking the picture. The twins and I lived in their basement after Padmé died," Anakin sighed. "I haven't talked to them in years."

There was a pause, then Anakin went on, "Jango worked as a Phys. Ed. teacher at my high school. They got discounts on the tuition. That was the only reason they could afford to send Rex there."

"You graduated from Theed Academy," Obi-Wan said surprising himself by his boldness. How could he ask questions like that when he'd just proven himself a horrible babysitter?

Anakin shook his head. "I went there," he corrected. "I didn't graduate."

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I was close, don't get me wrong," Anakin said. "My father figured out I married Padmé and that she was pregnant just over two weeks before graduation. He went ballistic—understandably, I guess—and disowned me."

Obi-Wan couldn't say that was a surprise. With the way Anakin had been talking about his father, Obi-Wan had figured something like that had happened, however, it was just a little unnerving to hear Anakin say it. He couldn't imagine Qui-Gon and Tahl (his own parents) disowning him, even if he had gotten married and had kids in high school.

Anakin wasn't finished with his story. "However, at that point all the bills and things for my last semester of school were all paid and I could have just gone for the last two weeks and graduated. Unfortunately, I got angry and made the mistake of telling my father that having an excuse to never speak to him again wouldn't be a punishment," Anakin shrugged. "So while I was upstairs getting my stuff, he called Theed and pulled me out."

"With two weeks left," Obi-Wan said.

"Yeah," Anakin sighed. "I would have been Salutatorian. Actually, I really should have been Valedictorian, but the reasons I wasn't are a story for another day."

"What about Padmé?" Obi-Wan asked.

"She graduated," Anakin said. "She'd lived with a foster family in Naboo and after she turned eighteen, she stayed in the city—mostly because of me, actually. She went to the public school.

"That's what protected the secret for so long, actually," Anakin said. "My father was constantly having people snoop around for gossip about me, but while Padmé's pregnancy was prime gossip at NHS, no one at Theed knew who she was.

"In the end it was my own carelessness that got us caught," Anakin went on, he was completely off topic, but didn't seem to have noticed. "I was sitting at the kitchen table of my father's mansion looking at some pictures of Padmé and me on my phone. Shaak called me to help her with something and I left my phone on the table. I must have forgotten to lock it, because Tyranus just prowled into the kitchen, picked it up and started looking at the pictures."

Anakin heaved a sigh. "I'm good with machines and computers. When I'd started going out with Padmé I'd known my father wouldn't like it, so I built this failsafe into the phone that would delete all mentions of Padmé if I typed in a certain code. Only problem was that it was meant for those times when he demanded that I allow him to search my phone, not when the butler decided to meddle in my personal life."

"The fact that you not only thought to do that but actually could do it is impressive regardless of whether or not it actually worked," Obi-Wan said. "Did you get your GED?"

Anakin shook his head.

"You didn't?" Obi-Wan asked, unable to keep the shock out of his voice.

"I was going to," Anakin said. "But then the twins were born, and Padmé died and it all just snowballed, and now I don't have time. I'm too busy paying the rent."

"You need your GED," Obi-Wan said, perhaps a bit too strongly. His parents had always been firm supporters of education, he couldn't imagine being in the position Anakin was in.

"I know I do," Anakin snapped. "You don't know how to add a couple more hours to the day do you?"

* * *

 **Well here's part two. I've decided to go with the four-part variation of this story, but I've got the rest of it planned out, so I promise it won't get any longer.**

 **I'm having a really hard time with the Obitine in this story. I just can't feel it. Granted putting them in a position where its totally alright for them to be together completely changes the dynamic of their relationship, so maybe that's the problem.**

 **It has always been my intention to kill Padmé in a car accident. I'll admit that after reading Rufescent's review of Part One, I did consider having her die in childbirth. However as much as that would be going with the actual Star Wars Canon, I decided that it didn't work. After all, death in childbirth is rare in First World countries. (It is rare in the Star Wars galaxy too-if you're not on a planet like Tatooine-but in ROTS there was the whole "Force-choked-by-my-husband-who-betrayed-me-and-is-now-evil" thing to deal with as well.)**

 **I was going to have the housekeeper be Bohle from the _Clone Wars Gambit_ novels by Karen Miller, but I decided she needed to be a character who would be known by people who hadn't read those books. (If you haven't read them, you should.)**

 **I'm going to need to do something about that copier, aren't I?**

 **Kudos to anyone who knows who the last boy in the basketball picture is.**

 **Preview for the next part: Anakin whump both past and present.**

 **Also, the title of this story comes from the song _Lean on Me_. I'm really embarrassed by that mix-up because I sang the song in choir a couple years ago.**

 **Please favorite, follow and review!**

 **Emjen**


	3. Part Three

**_Part Three_**

On Saturday, Anakin was home by 4:30. Obi-Wan was in the kitchen making supper with help from the twins when he heard the door open.

"You're back early," Obi-Wan stepped to the kitchen doorway.

"Yeah," Anakin sounded distracted. Obi-Wan watched as the young man slid off his jacket and threw it over the arm of the couch. That was unusual, Anakin always put his coat away. "Watto let me go early."

Watto was Anakin's boss at his day job. "That's great," Obi-Wan said. "We're making stir-fry for supper."

Anakin smiled, but there was something tense about his face. "That sounds good. I'll come and help you in a minute," then he headed towards the bathroom.

Anakin didn't come to help them for almost a half hour. Finally Leia went to grab something from her and Luke's bedroom, when she came back she glanced up at Obi-Wan and said, "Daddy's asking for you."

"Okay…" Obi-Wan frowned and left the kitchen.

Anakin was leaning against the bathroom door. When Obi-Wan got close, the younger man grabbed him, dragged him into the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

Obi-Wan was just about to ask what was going on, when he looked down and noticed that Anakin had wrapped a towel around his right hand. The towel was covered in something red.

"Is that blood?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin lifted a finger to his lips and jerked his head at the door. "Don't talk so loud, I don't want them to freak out."

"Are you bleeding?" Obi-Wan asked in a whisper.

Anakin nodded.

"What happened?" Obi-Wan demanded.

"I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but my first shift and weekend job is at a car factory," Anakin said leaning back against the door, he kept the towel wrapped tightly around his hand. "I cut my hand open on a sharp piece of metal."

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Anakin said. "The bleeding's mostly stopped now and I don't think I need stiches. It just needs to be bandaged, and I can't do that with one hand."

"So you need me," Obi-Wan said.

"Something like that," Anakin agreed with a wan smile.

Obi-Wan found the things he would need, and Anakin slowly unwrapped the towel from around his hand. The cut was long, but not particularly deep, hopefully Anakin was right in believing it would heal fine without stiches.

Then didn't speak while Obi-Wan bandaged the hand. He was almost done before he said anything. "You didn't tell me you worked in a factory," he said.

"Car factory," Anakin said like that made a difference.

"You know how to build cars," Obi-Wan said trying to ignore how dangerous working in a factory must be.

Anakin grinned. "I didn't before I got this job."

Obi-Wan couldn't agree with the young man's humor. He bit his lip as he finished up the bandage and began to put things away.

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Relax, Obi-Wan, I only do the really intricate work. I'm not around the big factory machines most of the time. I'm comparatively safe."

"Need I remind you that we just finished bandaging up a huge cut in your hand?" Obi-Wan asked.

The nonchalant shrug that was Anakin's response proved that he didn't see Obi-Wan's point. "It happens."

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan snapped.

Anakin heaved a sigh "The point is, Obi-Wan, that I actually like this job. It's a million times more interesting than that Walmart job I work second shift, and I probably get way more hands-on experience than I would have if I'd actually gone to college and gotten a degree in engineering."

"That's all fine," Obi-Wan said. "But what happens when you lose a hand?"

"I'm not going to lose a hand," There was a smile on Anakin's face, he wasn't taking Obi-Wan seriously. "How careless do you think I am?"

* * *

On Sunday night Obi-Wan found himself walking up to the front door of Satine's small but well-kept house. He stood on the front porch for a minute, gathering his courage, then reached out with shaking fingers and pressed the doorbell.

Satine answered quickly. She was dressed casually, but was still pretty in a pair of jeans and a sweater. Obi-Wan was about to compliment her when he realized she was on the phone.

She pulled him inside and held up one finger. "One minute," she mouthed then turned her attention back to the phone. "Bo," she said. "This is the third time you've called me about this. I'm giving you any money. Get a job."

Whoever was on the other end evidently said something Satine didn't like because her face got even redder than it already was. "I know that Mom and Dad won't give you any money, you wouldn't be calling me if they had." She paused as the other person talked, then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Listen, Bo, I have to go. I have a date. Don't call me about this again, you're not getting a cent off me," then she hung up.

Satine took a deep breath and turned to Obi-Wan with a tired smile. "Sorry about that. That was my younger sister, Bo-Katan. She's the founder and leader of this protest group she calls the Nite Owls. They keep getting charged with all these bills for property damage related to their protests. Bo can't pay them because she quit her job when she started this thing, so she keeps trying to get someone else in the family to pay them. Once our parents refused, I was the next best option."

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said.

Satine shrugged. "I guess I probably should be thankful for it in a way, because she doesn't call unless she needs something. At least this way I hear from her every once and a while." She sighed. "I'm really sorry we had to start off the night like this. Let's just put this behind us?"

"Let's," Obi-Wan agreed.

* * *

After the movie, Satine's sister was the last thing on either of their minds. They were laughing together when they walked back to Obi-Wan's car and went to get ice cream.

"That was great, Obi-Wan," Satine said as they were sitting inside the shop sharing a banana split. "I'm so glad we did this."

"I was a little worried you'd think the movies were boring," Obi-Wan said. "My last girlfriend did," then he spluttered wondering if he'd just implied something he hadn't meant to.

"She must have really been something," Satine said, she didn't appear to have noticed anything. "The movies are classic. I'm glad you didn't listen to her."

Obi-Wan grinned. "I'm glad too."

They ate their ice cream in comfortable silence for several minutes. Every couple minutes, Satine glanced at the TV in the corner which was playing the news. Obi-Wan followed her gaze to see the station was talking about the latest debate for the upcoming presidential election. The debate in question had been between the candidates from the two major parties, Senator Bail Organa and Senator Sheev Palpatine.

Obi-Wan wasn't as knowledgeable about the politics of the two candidates as he would have liked to be. Four years ago, he spent hours understanding the positions of the all the candidates, but this election he was too busy with teaching and watching the twins to spend much time on politics. As far as Obi-Wan could tell, Palpatine was the more upstanding of the two candidates but that could have just been because his party was running a better smear campaign than Organa's.

"He's coming to our school district," Satine said.

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Palpatine," Satine said. "He's coming to the school district to speak in a couple months. I just heard Principal Windu talking about it on Friday morning. Apparently, we're going to take the whole of WES to see him."

"But, the majority of the students in the district aren't old enough to vote," Obi-Wan said.

"Yes, but you what they say about politicians kissing babies," Satine smiled. "Plus, a lot of adults will go even though it's in the school, and it'll be a good experience for the students."

"You're probably right," Obi-Wan agreed and they moved on to talking about other things.

* * *

It turned out that Satine was right about Palpatine coming to the Works School District. Within days of her and Obi-Wan's first date, Principal Windu made an announcement about it to the staff and began to tell all the teachers what they would need to do with their students. The event would be held in May and though it was still a few months off, there was still a lot to be done.

It was one of the last days in February when every student was sent home from school with a permission slip for their parents to sign. If the student had the paper signed they could attend the function and participate in a special meeting with Senator Palpatine.

Obi-Wan brought the twins' permission slips home and stuck them to the refrigerator with a magnet. That way if he forgot to mention them to Anakin, the twins' father would still see them.

Obi-Wan and the twins had a nice evening doing homework, watching a movie and going to bed on time (Obi-Wan was very anxious to avoid a repeat of the photo album incident), in fact by the time Anakin got home, Obi-Wan had completely forgotten about the permission slips.

He probably wouldn't have remembered them either, if not for Anakin. Obi-Wan was tying on his shoes when he heard the rustling of paper in the kitchen where Anakin was raiding the refrigerator.

Suddenly, Anakin stormed into the room waving something in one hand. "He's coming here?" he snarled.

"What?" Obi-Wan had been asleep on the couch when Anakin had gotten home so he was still half asleep and couldn't work out what was going on.

Anakin waved the permission slips in front of Obi-Wan's face. "Palpatine! You're bringing that monster to Coruscant and you want me to let him near my kids?"

Obi-Wan blinked in surprise. "I take it you aren't fond of Senator Palpatine."

"'Aren't fond,'" Anakin snorted. "I wouldn't vote for him if he was the only person running!" he ruffled the permission slips. "I'm not signing these."

Obi-Wan bit back an annoyed sigh. He hadn't ever imagined being in this position. Anakin Skywalker had never struck him as having strong political beliefs. "Anakin," he said. "Do you have any idea how amazing this experience would be for Luke and Leia? Did you get to meet a presidential candidate when you were in school?"

"That's irrelevant," Anakin said. "Why would I want to my kids to go to a pointless publicity stunt to meet a hypocrite who only cares about himself?"

"I'll admit I'm not as knowledgeable about this election as I'd like to be," Obi-Wan said carefully. "But you don't know Palpatine, Anakin, regardless of what you've heard from the media."

There was a very long pause. Anakin looked like he was debating saying something but couldn't decide if it was a good idea. Finally he nodded curtly and said in a very flat, detached voice, "I guess I wouldn't, would I?"

Obi-Wan was taken off guard by the sudden change of mood. He felt like he was missing something extremely important, but he couldn't figure out what. "Regardless of how you feel about Palpatine's politics," he said soothingly. "I think you should sign those permission slips. Luke and Leia would really benefit from this; it's not an experience every child gets," Anakin said nothing, so Obi-Wan pushed on. "Promise me you'll at least think about it?"

Anakin sighed, and looked away, suddenly he looked very, very small and forgotten. "I'll think about it," he promised.

The next day when Obi-Wan opened the twins' folders there were the permission slips, carefully smoothed out and signed. Inside of Leia's folder was a small slip of paper bearing a note from Anakin:

 _Obi-Wan,_

 _Consider this a personal favor, I still think it's a terrible idea._

 _-Anakin_

* * *

The next few weeks passed in what began to seem like an endless routine. Obi-Wan got up, rode the subway to work. He taught his class, foiled Han and Lando's latest plot, unjammed the copier again and moaned about the copier with Satine, Principal Windu or whoever else happened to be in around. Then he cleaned up the classroom, packed up his school things, took the twins to the apartment and made supper.

After super, the twins helped with the dishes and then they did their homework on the kitchen table while Obi-Wan planned his lessons. Sometimes he brought along his laptop and used it with the help of his phone set on hotspot mode (unlimited data had its perks). On these days he let the twins play computer games after they finished their homework. The computer was a novelty to the twins because, while Anakin had a laptop (a model that had probably been state-of-the-art five years before), the machine was stored in on the top shelf of the closet in Anakin's room and rarely (if ever) used. If Obi-Wan didn't have the laptop, they played with the twins' toys or board games or watched a movie until it was time for bed.

Once the twins were in bed, Obi-Wan had a couple hours to himself. He finished up whatever lesson plans and grades he still had to do then curled up on the couch and slept until Anakin got home. Obi-Wan had found that if he didn't sleep while at the apartment, he was exhausted the next day. He didn't know how Anakin lived off the amount of sleep he got.

When Anakin finally got home from work. Obi-Wan packed up his things and made sure Anakin ate if he hadn't already and actually went to bed instead of just passing out on the couch. Then he left the apartment and rode the subway home. Once there, he went straight to bed and woke up in the morning to do the whole thing over again.

The only changes from this routine were Wednesdays and weekends. On Wednesdays, he went back to his own house after school and made super or went out to eat with Satine before heading over to Anakin's apartment and doing the same routine as the rest of the week. On Saturdays, he was up early and back over at the apartment before Anakin needed to leave for work. He watched the twins until suppertime when Anakin came home. He normally ate supper with Anakin and the twins on these nights unless he had plans with Satine. Sundays were the only days when he didn't go to Anakin's. On these days, he got up and went to church with Satine (it turned out that they went to the same church), then they went out for brunch at a café they'd found called Dex's Diner. Somedays they did things together afterwards, other days Obi-Wan just went home and relaxed as best he could.

At first these changes in routine had been enough, but soon Obi-Wan began to feel like he was trapped in a loop doing the same thing over and over again. He felt like no matter what he tried things just happened the same way they had a million times before. It was becoming almost maddening.

He could tell that he wasn't the only person struggled with the repetitive nature of his life. As the weeks went by, Obi-Wan noticed that Anakin becoming more and more irritable. This didn't really surprise Obi-Wan. The more time he spent around the Skywalker family the more he realized that Anakin didn't do much aside from work, sleep, eat somewhat infrequently (though he rarely forgot to feed the twins, he was constantly forgetting to eat himself) and play with the twins a little on the weekend. It probably didn't help that both of Anakin's jobs were basically doing the same thing over and over again. Anakin was fairly vocal about how boring Walmart was, but though he claimed to like working at the factory, Obi-Wan could see that the monotony of that job was getting to him as well.

Irritability wasn't the only thing Obi-Wan had noticed in Anakin recently. Anakin also seemed to be becoming increasingly anxious. This nervousness manifested in small ways that seemed relatively harmless when taken by themselves. Anakin's worries about bills—which were fairly constant—became even more all-consuming. He began second guessing everything he did. Several times he called when school was in session and left messages asking if he'd remembered to send this paper or that paper along with the twins, or wondering if he'd turned the TV off before he'd left the apartment. All this had come to a head the night when Anakin had worked himself into a near panic when he'd become convinced that he had left his cell phone at work even though he'd already plugged the phone in to charge in the kitchen.

Obi-Wan figured that something really major was bothering Anakin and that his worry about that thing was spilling over into everything else. The only problem was that Obi-Wan couldn't figure out what Anakin found so troubling. The only plausible thing was the bills, but as far as Obi-Wan could tell (and he didn't go rooting through Anakin's mail) that front hadn't changed much in the last few weeks. In fact, the only thing that had happened recently that he knew Anakin had been upset by was that business with Palpatine's visit and the permission slips, but surely that wasn't important enough to merit such a reaction. There had to be something Obi-Wan didn't know about going on.

Still he wished he could figure out what. He couldn't shake the feeling that he and Anakin were trapped in some kind of maze that was winding into a huge finish.

Or maybe explosion would be a better term…

* * *

If it wasn't for the date on his phone, Obi-Wan would have been too lost in the routine to know what the date was. However, he phone told him that it was early April. There was just over a month of school left, then Obi-Wan would babysit the twins full time. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, Obi-Wan was dreading that. Teaching school was the only thing that added some variety to his life. Once school was over, life would just be the apartment day in and day out.

He tried not to think about that too much, instead he focused on preparations for Palpatine's visit. Obi-Wan was ridiculously excited about the event. It gave him something different to grasp onto and work towards. He taught the kindergarteners about history and how presidents were elected. He did some research about both candidates on his own when twins were asleep at night. Bail Organa was something of a pacifist and his wife, Breha, was almost as politically active as he was. Organa was either a great man or a terrible one depending on what news station you listened to.

Palpatine's wife had died years before, but they had a grown son. There wasn't much about either Mrs. Palpatine or the son, but Obi-Wan figured that probably was a good thing with the way the media worked.

Palpatine also had a nearly spotless record. People didn't seem to have much bad to say about him. If Obi-Wan had been a more pessimistic person, he might have said that was suspicious, but he was fine with taking Palpatine's character at face value. He couldn't figure out what Anakin had heard about Palpatine that had made him so angry.

On that Wednesday in early April, Obi-Wan, Anakin and the twins left WES at the same time. As they walked by the office they heard Principal Windu cursing by the copier.

"Is it jammed again?" Obi-Wan asked from the doorway.

"Of course it is!" Principal Windu snapped. "Is it ever not?"

"There's something wrong with your copier?" Anakin asked, he sounded far more interested than one would expect given the topic.

"It jams all the time," Principal Windu said. "And I know that all copiers jam—that's what the school board tells me every time I bring it up—but this one jams far more than it should."

"Do you want me to look at it?" Anakin asked. "Maybe I can figure out what's wrong with it."

Principal Windu blinked, it was obvious he hadn't expected that response. "I guess you can if you would like to…"

"I would like too," Anakin's eyes were shining and he looked alive for the first time in weeks. Obi-Wan could tell that he was looking forward to doing something different.

"Alright," Principal Windu said, Obi-Wan got the feeling he was so sick of the copier he'd let anyone try to fix it.

Principal Windu stepped aside and Anakin, Obi-Wan and the twins entered the office. Anakin stepped over the copier and began taking it apart, within minutes he had it more disassembled than Obi-Wan had known possible. Anakin studied the guts of the copier for several minutes, then he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny, Daddy?" Luke asked.

Anakin just kept laughing.

"Would you like to enlighten us on the joke so we can laugh with you instead of just staring at you like you're insane?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin swallowed and turned to look at Obi-Wan, laughter still creased his eyes. "Someone assembled parts of this backward," he said and burst out laughing again.

Obi-Wan looked at Principal Windu who raised his hands. "Why are you looking at me? I didn't put it together!"

"Sorry," Anakin said pulling himself together again. "I meant that the factory put parts in backwards," he smothered another giggle. "I don't know how they managed that, because it must have been difficult to get the pieces in wrong."

"Can you fix it?" Principal Windu asked.

"Yes," Anakin said. "Do you have a screwdriver?"

As Principal Windu went to find the requested tool, Obi-Wan glanced at the twins. "Do you want me to take the twins home?" he asked.

Anakin shook his head; he was looking over the copier intently. "This won't take me very long."

He turned out to be right. After Principal Windu returned with the screwdriver, it took Anakin less than twenty minutes to turn the parts the right way and put the copier together again.

"That should fix your problem," he told Principal Windu, handing back the screwdriver. "It might still jam every once and a while because all copiers do, but if it doesn't get better or if it gets worse, let me know and I'll think of something else to try."

"That's wonderful," Principal Windu said. "Thank you so much. What do I owe you?"

Anakin blinked, he looked confused. "Nothing…"

"I must owe you something," Principal Windu said. "You've solved a persistent problem, and I'm grateful."

"You don't owe me anything," Anakin said. "I'm just happy to be able to help," he turned to the twins. "Alright, are you two ready to go home?"

He and the twins left Obi-Wan and Principal Windu standing in the office.

* * *

The small diversion with the copier did wonders for Anakin's mood. He was laughing with the twins when Obi-Wan showed up later that night and his high spirits even survived his night at Walmart. Obi-Wan found himself hoping that the mood lasted. What Anakin really needed was a change of pace, but Obi-Wan figured a change of mood would do in a pinch.

However, it wasn't meant to last. Anakin came home from work on Thursday night back in his cycle of stress. He didn't even wake Obi-Wan up the way he normally did, he just walked into the kitchen and began going through the bills and statements frantically.

"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

"This isn't going to work," Anakin was saying, he shuffled through the papers feverishly. "There just isn't enough money for this!"

"Anakin, what's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin whirled around, his eyes were wide and panicked. "Watto offered me a promotion."

"That's great news," Obi-Wan said. "I don't see how that's bad."

"Okay, he said he wants to promote me," Anakin said. "The position he wants to give me is a good one. I could cut back the hours I work at Walmart, maybe even quit there."

"I still don't see what the problem is," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin fisted both hands in his hair. "He said the promotion is mine, but I'm not qualified for it until I get my GED."

There was the reason Anakin was freaking out. "Oh."

Anakin looked at the papers again. "I'll need to take a couple weeks off of work at Walmart so I can get ready for it. It's a test that you have to appear for in person like you would the ACT or the SAT, so I won't be able to work that day, and I'll need some time to go over things. Who knows how much I've forgotten," he ran a hand through his hair, but the motion became closer to him ripping his hair out. "The problem is that I need all the money I would be making at Walmart to pay the bills and pay you and buy food…I don't have savings anymore, Obi-Wan."

"What if I were to just watch the twins for free for a month?" Obi-Wan said.

"I can't do that," Anakin said. "This is your job, I can't just not pay you."

"I'm also your friend," Obi-Wan said. "Look at it like a friend doing a favor for a friend."

Anakin shook his head. "I can't, Obi-Wan. I can't take advantage of you like that."

Frustration soared through Obi-Wan. "You won't be taking advantage of me! I'm your friend, I want to help you!"

"I can't!" Anakin shouted. "I have some pride you know!"

They probably would have gone on arguing but at that moment Luke appeared in the kitchen door rubbing his eyes. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. "Nothing's wrong, Luke," Anakin said giving the little boy a shaky smile. "Obi-Wan and I are just talking."

Luke pursed his lips. "You're sure?"

"We're sure," Obi-Wan said and turned to Anakin. "I'll put him back to bed. You get ready for bed and get some sleep. We can talk about this more in the morning."

He got another dull, stressed smile as Anakin headed off for his bedroom.

* * *

Friday went by without much fuss, just like any normal day in the endless routine. The thought of having to discuss the GED problems that night kept Obi-Wan from feeling too bored, in fact it made him a little nervous. He was totally willing to forgo his pay for a month if it helped Anakin and the twins. He knew how much the twins needed to spend more time with Anakin and he knew Anakin needed to have time for something other than working. This promotion could do wonders for them, and Obi-Wan was willing to do anything he could to help Anakin achieve it.

Now he just needed to convince Anakin it was okay.

* * *

That Friday night, Obi-Wan put the twins to bed and then went to bed himself. He was woken up at one in the morning to the sound of someone throwing up.

He was on his feet in a moment, thinking that one of the twins was sick. He darted to the bathroom to find Anakin leaning against the toilet. The bathroom lights were off even though Obi-Wan normally left them on so Luke and Leia could see if they got out of bed.

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked even though the answer was pretty obvious. He reached for the light switch.

"Don't," Anakin groaned.

"Don't what?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Turn the lights on."

"Why?" Obi-Wan was confused. "It's pitch black in here."

Anakin gagged and Obi-Wan turned away as the boy threw up again. _It had to be vomit didn't it?_

"It's a migraine," Anakin grunted when he'd finished. "Lights just make it worse."

A migraine? Obi-Wan had never known anyone who had them, he wondered what he was supposed to do. "Why are you throwing up?" he asked, "Isn't a migraine just a really bad headache?" then he winced. _Way to put your foot in your mouth, Kenobi._

Anakin was pressing his hands against his temples like he was trying to hold his head together. "The worst headache you could possibly imagine," he swallowed hard. "They make me really nauseous."

"What should I do?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Stop talking," Anakin gagged again. "Sounds, lights, smells: not exactly my friends right now."

Obi-Wan pressed his lips together and nodded even though Anakin wasn't looking at him.

An uncomfortable silence fell over them, Obi-Wan shifted from foot to foot. He felt like he should be doing something to help, but he didn't want to make Anakin feel worse.

Anakin swallowed heavily after several minutes. "I have some medication in the cabinet up there," he pointed a shaking finger at a cabinet above the sink. "Can you please get it for me?"

Obi-Wan opened the cabinet and squinted through the dark at the bottles in the cabinet. "Which one?"

"Not Tylenol, not Advil," Anakin had his eyes squeezed tight closed. "Something else."

That barely narrowed it down at all. "Prescription?"

"No."

Obi-Wan picked up out a likely looking bottle and held it out. "This one?"

Anakin opened his eyes and squinted up at it. After a moment he shook his head. "Sorry, my vision's a little blurry. What is it?"

Obi-Wan read the name out loud and Anakin shook his head. "Not that one, something else."

Obi-Wan searched through the cabinet again and pulled out another bottle. "What about this one," he said and read the name.

"That's the one," Anakin slid backwards so he was leaning against the bathroom wall. He winced and closed his eyes again. "I need two of those and a glass of water.

There was a cup sitting by the sink that Obi-Wan filled with water, then he shook two of the oval-shaped white pills into his hand. He turned back to Anakin who was still huddled against the wall. "Are you sure you can keep this down?" he asked.

Anakin bit his lip. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. "I'm going to have to."

Obi-Wan handed over the meds and the water. He watched as Anakin swallowed the pills and curled in on himself, head resting on his knees, arms wrapped around his head. He didn't move for almost twenty minutes.

When he finally did he lifted his head and squinted at Obi-Wan. "Alright, I think I'd like to go to bed now."

Obi-Wan helped Anakin brush his teeth and move into his bedroom. Then Obi-Wan found an old tee-shirt and a pair of pajama pants in the dresser and turned away while Anakin changed. As soon as he was done changing, Anakin sunk onto the bed and lay there pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"This one's worse than the last one," he muttered.

 _Last one?_ "When was the last time this happened?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Sometime last fall," Anakin waved a hand. "A while ago."

Last fall. Obi-Wan thought about it and something about Anakin that had never made much sense clicked. "That day we ran into Yoda!" he exclaimed. "Leia said you weren't feeling well and you told her you had a headache!"

"Yeah," Anakin nodded slightly. "That was it."

"You could have said something," Obi-Wan said.

"What good would it have done?" Anakin answered.

"You're in pain," Obi-Wan pointed out. "You shouldn't have to deal with that alone."

Anakin moved his hands away from his eyes and squinted up at Obi-Wan. "Can we talk about this when I can actually think straight?"

Anakin obviously wanted some peace and quiet to sleep this off. Obi-Wan nodded and tucked the blankets around the young man. "I'm going to stay the night," he said.

"You don' hav' t' do tha'," Anakin muttered words beginning to slur.

"You're sick," Obi-Wan said. "I'm going to say in case you need someone. I'll be in the front room if you need me."

He had expected more of an argument, but Anakin was tired and sick and in pain, and just nodded. "M'kay…" and curled up in the blankets.

* * *

Obi-Wan found a spare blanket in the closet in the twins' room and curled up under it on the couch. He slept fitfully with one ear open because he wasn't convinced Anakin would actually call if he needed help. The rest of the night was quiet, however, and Obi-Wan had just fallen into a fairly restful sleep when an alarm sounded.

It wasn't a very loud alarm, but Obi-Wan still alert enough that he woke up. Sitting up he reached for his cell phone on the coffee table and checked the time, it was 7:00am. He swore under his breath, he'd totally forgotten that today was Saturday. Anakin worked on Saturdays.

The alarm turned off. Obi-Wan hoped Anakin had the sense to just go back to sleep and not try to go into work. There was no noise from the young man's bedroom. Obi-Wan sat on the couch and fought the urge to go and check that Anakin was still in bed. No one was crazy enough to try to go to work in that state. Still he couldn't settle down so he walked to the bedroom and slowly opened the door.

Anakin was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed pressing the heels of his hands against his temples. Judging by the way he winced when the light from the front room hit his eyes, he wasn't feeling much better than he had the night before.

"What are you doing up?" Obi-Wan asked even though he had a sinking feeling he already knew.

Anakin didn't look up at him, he was too busy rubbing his temples. "I have to work in an hour."

Obi-Wan couldn't completely hold back a groan. Was this man insane? He crossed the room to the place where Anakin's jacket hung on the closet door, he looked through the pockets and was unsurprised to find Anakin's cell phone, completely forgotten in all the commotion the night before. Obi-Wan moved back across the room and held the phone out in front of Anakin's face.

Anakin stared at the phone for a minute then lifted his head and squinted up at Obi-Wan. He didn't say anything, but his confusion was evident enough.

"You're going to call in sick," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin blinked. "Obi-Wan, this is my job. I can't just not go. I need to be reliable. Especially if I want Watto to hold true to his promise of promoting me."

Obi-Wan couldn't believe Anakin would even try to make that argument. "I'm not saying you should just no show up, I'm saying that you should call in sick."

"I'm not sick," Anakin argued. "It's just a headache."

"It's a migraine," Obi-Wan growled. "You were throwing up last night. You're sick, and you're not going work. I'm not going to let you."

Anakin glared at him, the effect slightly marred by the pained grimace the expression caused. "What makes you think you need to 'let me?'"

Okay, maybe Anakin had some problems with authority; that wouldn't be surprising given the things he'd said about his father. Fortunately, Obi-Wan wasn't authority. "You're right," he said. "I don't have any control over what you do, but I am your friend and as a friend I'm saying that I think it would be best if you didn't go to work today."

Anakin sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Alright," he said holding out a hand. "Give me the phone."

Obi-Wan handed over the cell phone and watched while Anakin made the call. Once that was done, Anakin set the phone aside and curled up on the bed again, drawing the blankets over his head.

"Do you need anything?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shifted slightly. "Can you get those meds from the bathroom? The dose I took last night is wearing off."

"Okay," Obi-Wan said. "I'll be right back."

* * *

Obi-Wan didn't bother going back to bed, instead he sat around trying to work on his grading but mostly just worrying. He'd been staring at the same worksheet for over twenty minutes without making any progress when the twins came into the front room in their pajamas.

"Hi, Obi-Wan!" Leia said loudly.

Obi-Wan barely stopped himself from snapping at her. "Quiet," he said as gently as possible. "Your daddy's trying to sleep."

"He's home?" Leia sounded confused.

Luke pursed his lips looking worried. "Does he have a headache? Is he sick?"

Obi-Wan had been afraid of worrying the twins and was planning to just tell them that Anakin was tired. He'd never considered the fact that Luke and Leia probably already knew about Anakin's migraines. He cursed himself for not thinking of that.

"He has a headache," Obi-Wan admitted. "He's fine, he just wants to sleep."

"Why did he go work?" Leia asked, looking a little suspicious. "He always goes to work."

"Well, I convinced him to stay home," Obi-Wan said. "He's going to rest today."

The twins looked at each other, considering Obi-Wan's words, then Luke nodded. "Okay,"

* * *

The day passed quietly enough. The twins played and did some of their homework. Anakin slept, but his migraine didn't seem to be getting any better. Eventually, Obi-Wan asked if he was sure everything was alright and if they should go to a hospital. Anakin snapped that he would be fine if Obi-Wan would just leave him alone, and Obi-Wan made a hasty retreat before he could anger the young man even more.

After that, Obi-Wan didn't check on Anakin again until eight o'clock. He opened the door carefully, clutching a glass of water. Anakin was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling of the room, unlike the other times Obi-Wan had checked on him. He was still pale, but he didn't look like he was in pain.

"Are you okay?" Obi-Wan asked softly.

"It's almost gone," Anakin said. "I'll be alright."

"That's good," Obi-Wan said and held the glass of water. "You should drink something."

Anakin sat up slowly and took the glass. He raised the glass, then paused. "I'm sorry for yelling at you," he said.

"It's fine," Obi-Wan said. "You were hurting."

"I still shouldn't have yelled," Anakin said. "That wasn't fair to you. You've done nothing but help me, and you're not the first person to suggest that I should go to a hospital. I tend to forget that the rest of the world doesn't know that I'm not going to have an aneurysm or something and die."

"It's fine," Obi-Wan repeated. "I'm not mad."

"I'm sorry anyway," Anakin raised the glass again and took a long drink. "You can go home now if you'd like; I'm sure you're sick of being here."

"Actually," Obi-Wan said. "If it's all the same to you, I was planning to stay the night. That way you can rest and not have to worry about the twins."

"You don't have to," Anakin protested. "I'm pretty much fine now; just tired and a little dizzy."

"It doesn't matter that I don't have to," Obi-Wan said. "I'll stay tonight and you can sleep."

Anakin sighed. "Fine," he said, shaking his head.

"Hasn't a friend ever tried to help you?" Obi-Wan asked, somewhat bemused.

"It's been years," Anakin admitted. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't have much of a social life here."

"Even Ahsoka didn't try to help?"

Anakin shrugged. "For all her playing at being a million feet tall, I think my migraines kind of freaked her out, it wasn't hard to convince her to go home."

"Well then consider me an exception to the rule," Obi-Wan said. He was just trying to figure out what to say next when he heard Leia calling him from the front room. He turned to go, but Anakin's voice stopped him.

"Obi-Wan."

He turned back. "Yes?"

Anakin gave him a cautious smile. "Thank you."

Obi-Wan smiled back. "No problem. What are friends for?"

* * *

The next morning was Sunday. When Obi-Wan poked Anakin's sleeping form the young man barely twitched, so Obi-Wan wrote a note, got the twins up and took them to church. They had to stop at Obi-Wan's house so he could change (he was not going to wear the clothes he'd been wearing and sleeping in for the last two days to church), and were almost late. Afterwards, they met up with Satine and went to Dex's. Luke and Leia feasted on chocolate chip pancakes while Obi-Wan and Satine talked and ate omelets. When Satine asked where Anakin was, Obi-Wan just said that Anakin wasn't feeling well and left it at that.

When they were finished eating, Obi-Wan ordered something to take back to the apartment for Anakin. Satine gave them a ride back to the apartment in her car, which was an adventure for the twins, because they didn't remember a time when they'd gone places on anything other than the subway. Thankfully, neither of them remembered the incident with Barriss until they were climbing the apartment steps.

Anakin was up when they got back, his hair wet like he'd just gotten out of the shower. "I read your note," he told Obi-Wan. "Why didn't you wake me? I would have gone with you."

"I thought about it," Obi-Wan admitted. "But you were out cold so I decided to let you sleep. We brought you brunch," he held up the takeout box. "I hope you like chocolate chip pancakes, the twins wouldn't let me order anything else."

Anakin smiled. "At this point, Obi-Wan, I'd eat anything."

Luke and Leia went to play with their stuffed animals on the balcony, and Anakin sat in the kitchen to eat his food. Obi-Wan sat in the kitchen as well and paged through a copy of the Sunday paper that he'd picked up while they were walking to Dex's.

They sat in silence for several minutes, then Anakin frowned. "Last night, when we were talking, what time was it?"

"About eight," Obi-Wan said looking up. "Why?"

"Sometime after that alarm went off yesterday I unplugged my clock because its digital and the light was hurting my eyes," Anakin said, then he was silent for a minute, lips moving slightly like he was doing math. Finally he seemed to reach a conclusion. "About 28 hours," he said. "Definitely the worst migraine I've had since we moved to Coruscant. Though, all things considered, that's not surprising."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yeah," Anakin grinned. "Relax, Obi-Wan, that was nothing. I've had worse."

"But you just said that this was the worst-"

"I've had in the last couple years," Anakin corrected. "The longest a 'normal' migraine is supposed to be is 72 hours. I've had more than my fair share of 72 hour migraines, but that was back when I was in high school, ever since I moved here they've been a lot milder."

"So this is…" Obi-Wan searched for the right word, but couldn't find one and settled for, "normal?"

Anakin shrugged. "I've been having migraines since I was a kid. Mom had them too, which means there's a good chance one or both of the twins will have the same problem."

"Why?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to ask what causes them?" Obi-Wan nodded. "As best any of the doctors I saw in high school could tell: stress. Which didn't exactly work in my favor as a kid, because whenever I would get a headache my father would assume I was faking it to get out of something I didn't want to do or trying to get attention like you would expect from a spoiled rich kid. At best, he would just tell me to get out of bed, take a Tylenol and go to school," Anakin snorted. "What great fatherly advice: Tylenol doesn't help and neither do bright buildings full of noisy kids."

"Didn't he take you to see a doctor?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shook his head.

"That's…" Obi-Wan couldn't even fathom it. "How could he do that? What if you'd had a brain tumor?"

Anakin looked evasively down at his food. "He either truly believed I was faking it—which he couldn't have, not towards the end—or he remembered Mom's headaches and figured I wasn't going to die. Either way, he didn't want to risk someone in the media figuring out about it, so he didn't think taking me to see a doctor was worth it."

Obi-Wan wondered exactly what Anakin's father was that he'd be worried about the media figuring out he'd taken his son to the _doctor_. He thought about asking, but instead settled for another pressing question, "You did end up seeing a doctor in the end, right?"

"Yeah," Anakin put a bite of pancake in his mouth and chewed. He seemed to be thinking about how best to answer the question. "You remember how I said that I should have been Valedictorian, right?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan answered.

Anakin took a deep breath. "I slipped out of number one in my class my junior year. The year started out simply enough, my father was pushing and asking impossible things from me, per usual, but that year it was different. Before I knew it I was having more migraines than I'd ever had before, and I was sick all the time," Anakin stuffed another bite into his mouth and chewed almost convulsively. "As I'm sure you can imagine, it's really hard to do your homework when your head hurts too much to focus on anything. My grades started to slide and Ferus got ahead of me. That made Father mad and it turned into this feedback loop I couldn't get out of.

"Father still wouldn't take me to see a doctor," Anakin continued. "I think at that point he was knew something was wrong and was terrified of having to explain why he hadn't taken me to see someone sooner. Eventually, though, things forced his hand."

Anakin ate in silence for several more minutes. Right when Obi-Wan was about to prompt him to go on, Anakin took a deep breath.

"My basketball team had had an undefeated season," Anakin said. "We were playing our championship game. The team we were playing was really good, we'd beaten them before, but it had been close. The championship could have gone either way and we all knew it. My father made it very clear that he wouldn't accept anything but victory from us and that he didn't want my 'weakness' to be the downfall of the team.

"That's probably what did it, because that day I had the worst migraine I'd ever had in my life," Anakin sighed and looked up at Obi-Wan. "Normally when I have a migraine it's just everyone else who's afraid that I'm dying, but that time _I_ was afraid that I was dying. Ki-Adi—that was our assistant coach—took me to the ER. My team lost: everything fell apart because they were worrying about me.

"The doctors made sure I didn't have a tumor or an aneurysm then put me on some kind of preventative medication," Anakin continued. "It worked wonderfully, and is probably the only reason my senior year didn't go the same way as junior year did. I don't take those meds anymore because it turns out that being away from my father removes most of the stresses that usually trigger my migraines. I also never saw anything about the incident on the news or the tabloids, so I don't know who my father paid off to keep the whole thing quiet."

"That's horrible," Obi-Wan said trying to process it all. He couldn't imagine a parent being so cruel.

Anakin shrugged. "It's not all bad, if Father had taken me to see a doctor sooner and I hadn't been so sick junior year I probably would never have met Padmé."

"Really?" Obi-Wan asked, latching onto what he hoped would be a happier story.

Anakin nodded. "A week or so before the championship, my team was having a party at Rex's house. It was a totally upstanding party, Jango was going to be there and everything. He was all about creating a reputation for the basketball team of being these good, clean guys who played great basketball unlike the football team. (I won't tell you anymore about them. If you want to know about the football jocks at Theed, all you have to do is Google them and you'll know more than you ever wanted to.)

"Anyway," Anakin went on taking another bite of pancake. "We were having this party and Rex wanted me to come because I'd been skipping out on a lot of social stuff because I'd been feeling so crummy all the time. I ended up promising I would go, but there was still the problem of convincing my father to let me go. He wasn't known for letting me go anywhere with friends let alone to parties, even though he knew Jango wouldn't let us do anything illegal. Eventually, I ended up telling him that I was going to check out this new exhibit that the public museum. Rex and I figured that we'd go there and buy tickets in case Father tried to check my story, look around a little so it wasn't a total waste of money, then go to the party. Kitster and Tru refused to go with us, but Ferus came along, not because he was actually our friend, but because he was the only guy on the team who thought going to the museum actually sounded interesting."

"Very clever," Obi-Wan said. He had never told a lie that big to his own parents.

"Unfortunately, for me, the universe was conspiring against me," Anakin said. "Or maybe for me, I guess it depends on your point of view. Either way, by the time we got to the museum, I had a migraine. I remember I was sitting on the floor in one of the rooms, curled in on myself, when a hand touched my shoulder and someone asked if I was alright. I looked up and the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen was standing over me."

Anakin smiled somewhat shyly at Obi-Wan. "You have to realize, that at this point I wasn't thinking very clearly. I just said the first thing that came into my head and that was…" Anakin chuckled. "'Are you an angel?'"

Obi-Wan couldn't keep from laughing. "Smooth."

Anakin's smile was big and unafraid now. "Very," he agreed. "She volunteered at the museum, so once I got meds and I was feeling better, I started to go there just so I could her. After a while, I was talking to her, and then hanging out with her after school and then I was dating her." He paused, smiling softly as he thought. Then he looked up suddenly, eyes intense. "I don't know if you've ever been in love, Obi-Wan. Really in love. So in love that you feel like the whole world could stand against you and it wouldn't slow you down. That was what loving Padmé was like, and I was seventeen and reckless and I'd never felt more alive."

Anakin stopped again to think. "I asked her to marry me on her eighteenth birthday," he said. "She'd just gotten done telling me that she'd stay in Naboo because I was there, and I just went for it; didn't think about it at all. I didn't even have a ring, but she said yes," he smiled. "She claimed to be the more sensible of the two of us, but in all the ways that counted, she was as reckless as I was.

"Her birthday was in late August, but we had to wait until mid-September when I turned eighteen, and it was a really small wedding," Anakin went on. "Just me, her, Rex, her best friend, Sabé, and a priest in a little church. No one else knew. Actually, Jango and Zam didn't know until I got disowned, and you already know how my father figured out."

Anakin sighed. "Marrying Padmé was, I admit, absolutely foolish, but the strange thing is, even though I'm working two jobs and living in an apartment the size of the living room at my father's mansion, I don't regret it. Yes, maybe I did get disowned and maybe my father made sure I wouldn't graduate high school out of spite, but my father was, quite honestly, a terrible father and I'm better off without him. Plus, I have two wonderful kids and I got to spend just under a year married to the most amazing woman to ever live," his eyes seemed to bore into Obi-Wan. "I don't think I'll ever be able to regret that."

Obi-Wan didn't know what to say. He swallowed, hard and searched for something eloquent to say. "Thank you," he finally got out. "For sharing your story with me."

Anakin snorted. "It's not a very good story; there's no happy ending. She's still dead," He bit back a sound that sounded a little like a sob, Obi-Wan saw tears welling up in his eyes.

Anakin stood up suddenly and threw away the empty takeout box. He moved to the sink and began washing his fork and cup. He took a very long time, but Obi-Wan saw his shoulders shaking and didn't say anything, letting Anakin have his moment to compose himself.

When Anakin finally dried the dishes, put them away and turned around, his face was dry. "I should go check on the twins," he said. "They've gotten awfully quiet."

He crossed the kitchen in several long strides. He was in the doorway when Obi-Wan mustered up the courage to ask his last question, the one that he thought would finally fill in the cracks in the portrait he'd been constructing of who Anakin Skywalker was and who he had once been. "Anakin, who is your father?"

Anakin froze. He stood there for almost a minute, every muscle in his body rigid. Then he took a deep breath. "Obi-Wan," he said. His voice was as tense as his body. "I don't think you want to know."

Then he walked out of the kitchen to check on the twins.

* * *

 **All will be revealed in Part Four!**

 **Sorry for the wait, I really wanted to get this out sooner, but first I was procrastinating, then it was just taking a long time. I had the actual writing done last night, but it was taking me a really long time to read through it (in Microsoft Word this part is 17 pages of size twelve font). Eventually, I just went to bed and decided I'd post today. I'm hoping to get Part Four out quicker but I have an original story that I've been neglecting that I need to work on as well.**

 **Please fav, follow and review!**

 **Emjen**


	4. Part Four

**_Part Four_**

The next few weeks passed quickly. The Works School District was frantically preparing for Senator Palpatine's visit. Obi-Wan couldn't believe the amount of work that needed to be put into the event. Everything from security to paper programs had to be taken care of. The teachers were stressed beyond belief, and Obi-Wan could only imagine how Principal Windu was feeling.

The event was on a Friday in May. The Wednesday before, Obi-Wan and Satine went out to eat in an attempt to relax.

"I'll be happy when this is over," Satine said as she bit into her hamburger. "I have no idea how I'm going to keep a class of kindergarteners interested through the entirety of this thing."

"I agree with you," Obi-Wan said. "There are parts of this thing I'd have found boring in _high_ school."

"I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers," Satine said.

Obi-Wan nodded, and they ate in silence for several minutes. "Do you want to go out for dinner this weekend?" he asked after a while.

Satine glanced up at him. "Obi-Wan, you know I would love to but…"

Obi-Wan expected her to say she was going to visit family or something, but she didn't say anything at all. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Satine bit her lip, then sighed. "Sometimes I wonder what we are to each other."

Obi-Wan's stomach sunk. He could see where this was going. He was about to be dumped again. Why did all his relationships end like this?

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Satine was beat red. "I mean: what are we: Are we coworkers who hang out on the weekends, are we friends or…" she took a deep breath, "are we dating?"

Obi-Wan wasn't sure how she wanted him to respond. He wanted Satine to be his girlfriend, but would it be too forward to say so? He didn't want to scare her away. Maybe he should say they were friends and hope that they could become more later.

He tried to speak, but all that came out was a wordless stammer. He cleared his throat and tried again with slightly more success. "I don't know…"

Satine looked annoyed. "Obi-Wan, I'm asking you a question," she snapped. "Why can't you just answer it?"

The words were out of Obi-Wan's mouth before he could stop them. "Because I don't know what you want me to say."

That was the wrong thing to say. Satine's eyes were like chips of blue glass. "So you only say what you think I want you to say? Are you trying to manipulate me or something?"

"I'm not," Obi-Wan argued. "I just…The last time I made assumptions about what a girl wanted I ended up being completely wrong, so I figured that if I tried not to assume things with you, it would work out."

Satine frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

Obi-Wan had walked into it, he had no choice but to tell her about Asajj. He started with their chance meeting in the grocery store and went to when she had walked away. He had never told the story in such detail before, not even to Anakin.

When he finished, he and Satine sat in silence staring at each other. Finally, Satine spoke, "Obi-Wan, that's…That's terrible. I can't imagine why anyone would do something like that. She must have known that you were thinking about proposing. Why didn't she stop you?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Have you talked to her since?" Satine asked.

"No," Obi-Wan said. "I almost called her a couple times right afterward, but I stopped myself each time. I didn't want to come across as needy and if she was playing hard to get or something, I didn't want anything to do with it. Eventually I just deleted her number off my phone. I can't call her now, even if I wanted to."

"That's probably for the best," Satine said. She sighed and looked away. She seemed to be thinking very hard. After a minute she turned back and looked Obi-Wan straight in the eyes. "Obi-Wan, I don't think it's right that you live the rest of your life afraid that something like that is going to happen to you again. You need to move on," she took a deep breathe. "I would like to be your girlfriend, but only if you want to be my boyfriend. I wouldn't want you to say yes just because you think that's what I want."

Obi-Wan couldn't believe his luck. When this conversation had started he'd been sure that his relationship with Satine was over. "I would love to be your boyfriend!" he almost shouted, he was grinning from ear to ear.

Satine smiled back, equally widely. "I'm glad," she said and they hugged each other across the table.

* * *

Obi-Wan was walking on air when he headed to the apartment. He couldn't believe he'd gotten so lucky with Satine. For the first time since Asajj had broken up with him, he truly believed he had a chance with love.

Unfortunately for him, the universe was plotting to ruin his night. Thankfully, what happened had nothing to do with Satine, but it did trigger a series of events that would profoundly change his understanding of the Skywalkers and their predicament.

Of course, there wasn't a person in the world who would have realized just how important the events of that night were as they transpired. They appeared to be mundane.

Luke came down with the stomach flu that night. That illness was one of the unpleasant staples of childhood, so it wasn't particularity worrying, save for the horrible timing.

"You should get some sleep, Obi-Wan," Anakin said that night after he got home and Obi-Wan refused to leave yet again. "You can go in my bedroom. I'll take care of Luke while you sleep for a couple hours."

"No," Obi-Wan argued. "You need to rest. It's three in the morning."

Anakin had been playing with his hours at Walmart to give himself time to prepare for the GED. He wasn't dropping hours, he was just rearranging things to give himself a couple hours here and there to devote to reminding himself of the things he would need to the test. This rearranging meant that Anakin getting home even later than usual.

"That it is," Anakin agreed with Obi-Wan's assessment. "And you have to teach a class of kindergarteners tomorrow. You need to be awake for that. I'm going to have to take off of work at Watto's tomorrow—well, today. Anyway, I'll sleep later."

Anakin did have a fairly logical argument, but Obi-Wan still didn't think it was a very good idea. Anakin was as stressed out and anxious as he had been in April. He hadn't had another migraine, but Obi-Wan wouldn't have bet money on him not getting another one soon. Plus, the new hours at work had ensured that Anakin was getting even less sleep than he had before, and Anakin had admitted last week that he was starting to suffer from insomnia on top of everything. He was burning through his physical reserves faster than Obi-Wan had thought possible. Anakin was running a desperate race against time, betting that his body would hold out long enough to pass the test. Obi-Wan had begged Anakin over and over again to just let Obi-Wan work for free for a month, but Anakin wouldn't do it. He was just too proud.

 _His pride will get him killed one day._

However, Obi-Wan didn't know how to rid Anakin of his pride, and the young man was too stubborn to argue with, so Obi-Wan often found himself just giving in.

And in this case, going to bed.

* * *

Obi-Wan took Leia to school with him that day. When they got home afterwards, Luke was feeling better and sitting on the couch watching TV. Obi-Wan found Anakin asleep over a GED book in the kitchen. He tried not to wake him, but the young man woke up when Obi-Wan started to make supper and headed off to work.

Though he and Anakin didn't actually talk about it, they both expected Leia to get sick that night, but on Friday morning Anakin brought both twins to school.

"She seems fine to me," Anakin muttered to Obi-Wan in the doorway of the classroom. "Hopefully she'll make it through the day. If she could just stay healthy until the weekend everything will be fine."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Let's keep our fingers crossed then."

"Yes," Anakin looked around at the uncommonly well-dressed kindergarteners gathering in the classroom. "Palpatine's coming today isn't he?"

The question must have been rhetorical because the twins were dressed as nicely as all the other children. Plus, the school had sent home reminders last week, and news of the visit was all over the city. Still, Obi-Wan nodded. "We'll be leaving for the high school at 8:15."

Anakin nodded slowly, he looked like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should. He cleared his throat. "Are they going to meet Palpatine?" he asked.

"Yes, briefly," Obi-Wan said. "Didn't you read the informational paper?"

"I was hoping the plans had changed," Anakin ran a hand through his hair. "You'll watch them won't you? Don't let them alone with him, alright?"

Obi-Wan couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Anakin, what exactly do you think he's going to do?"

"I…" Anakin looked away. "Nothing, I guess…I'm just worrying."

"You have nothing to worry about," Obi-Wan soothed. "It's going to be fine."

Anakin nodded and took a deep breath. "You're right. I'll see you tonight."

As he left, Obi-Wan again wondered what Anakin found so offensive about Senator Palpatine and what rumor he'd heard that made him afraid to let the twins near him. Obi-Wan made a mental note to confront Anakin about it that night, some answers were in order.

Obi-Wan probably would have gone on wondering about Anakin's feelings on Senator Palpatine, but at that moment Han showed up covered in mud and Obi-Wan had to go about the daunting task of finding the little boy something else to wear.

* * *

The Works High School auditorium was a buzz with conversation. Senator Palpatine stood on the stage greeting all the students by grade. He was a silver-haired man dressed in a midnight black suit, with a gentle, soothing voice and grandfatherly smile that invited instant trust. Even before it was the kindergartener's turn to meet him, Obi-Wan had decided that he liked the Senator.

It was just before lunch. The first half of the day's speeches were over. Obi-Wan thought he would have found them very interesting if he hadn't had to keep a class of kindergarteners quiet.

It was finally the kindergarteners' turn to meet Senator Palpatine. The children stood in a mostly straight line on the stage in front of Palpatine. The twins stood on the end farthest from Palpatine with Obi-Wan.

The Senator was only a few children away from Luke when a small hand pulled on Obi-Wan's sleeve. "Obi-Wan, I don't feel good."

Obi-Wan's heart sunk as he looked down at Leia. _Our luck couldn't hold out for even one day?_

"Will you be alright until this is over?" Obi-Wan asked. "It's just another couple minutes."

Leia looked uncertain.

That probably meant no. Obi-Wan looked up to judge how close to them Palpatine was. Unfortunately, Palpatine was just finishing talking to the child just before Luke. There wasn't time to get Leia out of the auditorium without catching Palpatine's attention.

 _Wonderful._ Obi-Wan grumbled to himself.

Palpatine stepped over to Luke. "Hello, young man."

"This is Luke and his twin sister Leia," Obi-Wan said introducing both twins at the same time. Hopefully that would hurry things up and he could get Leia out of here.

"It's nice to meet you both," Palpatine smiled down at them. He asked them several questions and told a couple jokes. Luke did all the talking, and eventually Obi-Wan could see Palpatine beginning to wonder why Leia was so quiet.

"Are you alright, my girl?" he asked Leia leaning closer to her.

That was a mistake. By this point Leia's face had turned a pale green. Obi-Wan realized what was going to happen a second before it did. He reached for Leia to pull her away, but it was too late.

Leia threw up on Senator Palpatine.

* * *

There were not words to express the mortification of all involved parties. Leia burst into tears, and Luke blushed red. For one instant, Palpatine's face darkened into a picture of absolute rage, then he smiled kindly and bent down to ask if Leia was alright. Obi-Wan apologized profusely to the Senator until Principal Windu showed up and took over the job of apologizing. Once that happened, Obi-Wan scooped Leia up and carried her to the sick room in the office.

Leia was still sobbing as he cleaned her up. "It's alright," he soothed. "It's fine. This happens to everyone at least once. No one will be mad." He knew better than to admit he really had no idea if Senator Palpatine was going to be angry or not.

The high school desk lady, Jocasta Nu, came to the door of the sick room. "I've called Leia's father. He's coming to get her."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. Jocasta."

"I'll send him in when he gets here," Mrs. Jocasta said and left.

Obi-Wan had just gotten Leia settled down on the tiny room's couch when he heard voices out in the office. At first he thought Anakin had arrived, but it was much too soon for that. After a minute, Mrs. Jocasta returned to the doorway looking confused.

"Obi-Wan," she said. "Senator Palpatine is here. He's asking if he can talk to Leia."

"I…" Obi-Wan was just wondering if it was okay to tell a senator and presidential candidate "no" when Palpatine appeared in the doorway.

"How is she feeling?" he asked with a grandfatherly smile. He'd changed clothes and was now wearing a mulberry-colored suit. Obi-Wan found that a little strange, because he'd never heard of anyone wearing a red suit before, but he figured a senator would know more about fashion than a kindergarten teacher would.

"She'll be fine," Obi-Wan said. "She's resting now and her father is coming to get her."

Palpatine was still smiling. "That's good."

When Leia heard Palpatine's voice she began to cry again. Without asking if he might, Palpatine pushed by Obi-Wan and went to kneel next to her. "Don't cry," he said in a soothing voice. "I'm not angry. Such things happen. Come now; stop crying."

Leia struggled to stop crying. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Its fine," Palpatine smiled. "I know you couldn't help it." He motioned with one and a man Anakin's age with a gold streak in his dark hair pushed by Obi-Wan and moved to stand next to Palpatine. He was dressed smartly in a plain black suit.

"This is Mr. Olin," Palpatine said. "He's an assistant of mine. He tells very good stories. Isn't that right?" he looked up at Olin.

Olin pulled himself up very straight. "Yes, Senator Palpatine."

There was a long pause. "Well?" Palpatine asked and made an annoyed motion with one hand.

"Right, sir," Olin sat down very carefully on the floor. "Let me think…" Obi-Wan got the distinct impression that Olin had just been put on the spot.

Olin began haltingly telling the story of the Little Lost Bantha Cub. Palpatine smiled at all the right times. Obi-Wan wondered if he should tell them to leave so Leia could rest, but Leia seemed to be enjoying to story so he let them stay. He sat in a chair by the door listening and waiting for Anakin.

Eventually, Mrs. Jocasta returned to the door. "Leia's father is here."

Obi-Wan stood up. Much to his surprise Palpatine did as well. "I believe I would like to meet this young lady's father," he said. "I would like him to know that I'm not at all angry about what has happened."

Obi-Wan wasn't sure if Anakin would be happy to talk to Senator Palpatine, but he didn't know how to tell that to the senator so he said nothing and walked out of the sick room with Palpatine on his heels.

Anakin was standing by the front desk talking quietly with another office worker. Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan and started to smile, then he caught sight of Palpatine and his expression froze.

 _Oh no._ Obi-Wan turned to tell Palpatine to get out of Anakin's line of sight, but what he saw pulled him up short.

A cloud like a thunderstorm had passed over Palpatine's face.

Anakin stepped around the edge of the front desk and took a step towards them. He was standing very straight and stiff. Palpatine stepped forward as well. The two men stopped an arm's length apart and stared at each other. Something about the way they looked at each other led Obi-Wan to a startling realization.

Anakin and Palpatine knew each other. Personally.

"It truly is a small world," Palpatine said. His voice wasn't kind anymore, it was cold and harsh.

"Unfortunately," Anakin said then he swallowed and seemed to come to a decision, "Father."

* * *

Obi-Wan couldn't believe it. _Palpatine_ was Anakin's father? But Palpatine was kind and helpful and honest and upstanding and everything the portrait Anakin had painted of his father wasn't. It didn't add up.

But Anakin had said his father was extremely worried about preserving his reputation.

Anakin and Palpatine were still staring at each other. Neither of them seemed ready to make the first move. After a very long time, Palpatine spoke and his words were not friendly. "Why are you here?"

"Here?" Anakin raised his eyebrows. "I'm picking up my sick daughter."

"Amazing how children are always picking up such illnesses," Palpatine said coolly. He now sounded completely disgusted by the idea of a child getting the flu.

"Amazing," Anakin repeated flatly.

A deathly silence descended between the two men. Palpatine looked Anakin up and down. "You look terrible," he said.

Obi-Wan had to admit Palpatine was right, though he'd never have dreamed of saying it out loud. Anakin was pale, drawn and utterly exhausted. He looked far older than his twenty-three years.

Anakin gave Palpatine a stiff, almost mocking smile. "Yeah, well not all of us have extra cash lying around for Botox."

Palpatine's jaw went slightly slack like he couldn't believe Anakin had just said that. "I see that five years scraping out a living in the real world haven't done anything to tame your tongue."

"I only talked back to you once," Anakin said. "And you pulled me out of school for it."

"Once was more than enough," Palpatine practically snarled. "I won't tolerate a mouthy son."

"You'd already disowned me," Anakin answered. "You didn't have to put up with me."

When Palpatine didn't immediately respond it was obvious that Anakin had cornered him. The silence that followed was broken by Olin coming to the door of the sick room.

"Senator Palpatine," he said, "There are only a few minutes before the afternoon segment of this event begins. We should…" he trailed off when he say Anakin. "Oh, I-"

Anakin made eye contact with Olin over Palpatine's shoulder. "Hello, Ferus. You're working for my father now? That's news."

Olin bit his lip, looking even more awkward than he'd been when Palpatine had told him to tell Leia a story. "I'm surprised you didn't know. I figured Rex would have told you; he was livid."

"I can imagine," Anakin said and looked back at Palpatine. "It seems I'm taking up the time you need to form 'a safe and securer society.'" His lips curled into a nasty smile as he mimicked Palpatine's campaign slogan. The smile got even wider when he saw the blank look Palpatine gave him. "Hey, just because I have two jobs and two kids doesn't mean I live under a rock. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my daughter home and I'd really like it if you were to be gone by the time I bring her out here." With that he pushed by Palpatine and headed into the sick room.

Palpatine and Olin looked at each other and left the office.

* * *

It was after four by the time Obi-Wan and Luke arrived at the apartment. Leia was asleep on the couch with one of her favorite cartoons on the TV. Anakin was nowhere to be seen. Luke plopped down on the floor next to the couch to enjoy the cartoon and Obi-Wan began looking for Anakin.

He found Anakin sitting at the kitchen table with his hands clenched in his hair and his eyes squeezed tight closed. Obi-Wan stopped in the doorway, wondering what to do. "Anakin?"

"Well," Anakin said through clenched teeth. "Now you know. Are you happy now?"

Was he happy now? Obi-Wan wasn't sure. He was glad he knew the identity of Anakin's father. He was glad that he knew Palpatine wasn't the benevolent man he appeared to be. However, he wasn't happy that Anakin had to have such an unexpected meeting with the man who had ruined most of his life.

"Are you alright?" he asked instead of answering.

That was the wrong thing to say. Anakin was on his feet in an instant. He whirled to face Obi-Wan, eyes burning with sudden rage. "That's how you're going to avoid my question?" his voice was quite but the anger in it cut through to Obi-Wan's core.

"I-" Obi-Wan wasn't sure how to defuse the situation. "I was just-"

"Well, since you're so curious," Anakin snarled. He was still speaking quietly so the twins in the other room wouldn't hear. "Riding home on the subway with a sick five-year-old is a very interesting experience, especially since she kept asking why I was shaking and I couldn't tell her that the nice man who came to see if she was feeling better isn't really nice and that he's her-" Anakin cut himself off and gave Obi-Wan an obviously fake smile. "So, yeah Obi-Wan, I'm just great."

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said as gently as possible. "I didn't mean to make you angry. Yes, I was curious about who your father is, but I also understand that seeing him today was hard for you and I don't want you to hurt."

Anakin made a sound between a sigh and a snort and looked away. Obi-Wan noticed that his hands were shaking.

Obi-Wan stepped over to the refrigerator and took out the milk. He began making hot chocolate in silence. He would have preferred tea but he didn't bother keeping any in the apartment because Anakin and the twins didn't drink it.

By the time he'd finished making two mugs of hot chocolate, Anakin had had a little time to simmer down and was sitting at the table again. Obi-Wan set one mug in front of Anakin and sat down across from him with the other one. Anakin grabbed the mug and took a sip. Neither of them said anything for several minutes.

"My birth name is Sheev Anakin Palpatine Jr." Anakin finally said. "I changed my name and the twins' names to Skywalker when I moved to Coruscant. I didn't want to keep a name that tied me so obviously to him."

"That must have been difficult to get used to," Obi-Wan said quietly.

"Not really," Anakin replied still without looking up. "Everyone I actually cared about already called me Anakin," he took another sip from his mug. "I do sometimes wonder if I should have taken the surname Naberrie—that was Padmé's last name. However, at the time I was really paranoid. When I was still in Naboo, my father keeping tabs on me and I knew that if he figured out I'd moved to Coruscant he'd just keep doing it so I picked a name that he would never think of. Looking back, I'm not sure it was necessary. He didn't seem to have the faintest idea I was here today."

They lapsed back into silence for several minutes. Obi-Wan took the initiative next. "I'll admit to being shocked," he said. "Palpatine seems so…"

"Decent?" Anakin raised his head to look at Obi-Wan. "That's what he wants you to think. He used to tell me that elections are won and lost by appearance. He said that it doesn't matter what kind of person a candidate is, it only matters what kind of person the public _thinks_ he or she is.

"My father has dedicated his entire life to making sure he wouldn't lose by public opinion," Anakin continued. "That's was the trouble with my existence. You can't trust a child to be a model of perfect decorum at all times, so he kept me out of public eye as much as possible. That's why he was so angry about me and Padmé. To the public, Padmé was just another pregnant eighteen-year-old, but as soon as someone realized the babies were mine it would be a huge scandal and Father didn't want to deal with it. So he got rid of me, paid off Theed Academy and swept the whole thing under the rug."

"But wouldn't it cause a scandal if someone figured out he disowned you and basically kicked you out of school?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yes, it would," Anakin said.

"Then why don't you tell someone?" Obi-Wan said.

Anakin gave him a look

"I mean it," Obi-Wan continued. "You could destroy his perfect reputation. If you were to tell the right people what he did to you, you could change people's opinions of him. You could cause him to lose the election."

"Don't think I haven't thought about it, Obi-Wan," Anakin said. "But this isn't just about me."

"That's what I mean," Obi-Wan said. "If he becomes president we're all going to have to deal with him."

"No, that's not what I mean," Anakin sounded close to snappish. "If it was just me I would tell. I would plaster everything he did to me all over the internet so you couldn't Google his name without seeing it. I'd watch his perfect reputation fall in fragments around him and I'd laugh, but it isn't just me."

"What _do_ you mean?" Obi-Wan asked a little bit frustrated that Anakin was being so dense.

"I mean that I have two five-year-olds in the other room who don't even know they have living grandparents," Anakin said.

"I don't see how that means you should keep quiet," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin sighed like he thought Obi-Wan was being unbelievably dense. "Say I were to make videos of myself telling my story and put them on the internet. It wouldn't matter if I said where I lived now. Eventually, someone would recognize me and then the whole world would know where I am and people would come because everyone loves a good scandal."

Anakin leaned forward, his eyes burning with a strange fervor. "Obi-Wan, how can I tell Luke and Leia that their Grandpa is a famous man who did everything but beat their Daddy as a child and then make them deal with it while the rest of the world fights to get a chunk of the story? I grew up in the public eye. I know what it's like to know that every mistake you make could end up on the cover of a tabloid. That's not the life I want for my kids.

"But if Palpatine becomes president-" Obi-Wan began to argue.

Anakin jumped to his feet. "Then let him!" he roared, his face contorting into an ugly snarl. "Let him lord over the rest of us in the White House for a couple years! Maybe that will sate his rampant megalomania!"

The silence that followed was so deep Obi-Wan could hear his ears ringing. He stared at Anakin in shock. No one had ever spoken to him—raged at him—quite like that before. He hadn't known that kind of anger was possible.

Anakin stood on the other side of the table with his hands braced on his hips. He looked like he might explode again at the slightest provocation. Obi-Wan found that he was terrified to speak to the young man in case he set him off again.

The silence was broken by a soft whimper. Luke was lingering in the doorway of the kitchen looking scared.

"Luke?" Obi-Wan asked. "Are you alright?"

"I-" Luke's eyes darted to Anakin's back and then back to Obi-Wan's face. "I just…Leia and I were…We…"

They'd been frightened by Anakin's outburst. It was obvious that they'd heard—it was impossible for them not to in the small apartment, Obi-Wan wouldn't have been surprised if the neighbors had heard that last part too. The only thing they could hope was that the twins had only heard Anakin's last words and not the entire conversation.

It was obvious that Anakin knew the twins had heard as well. His back still to Luke, Anakin pressed his hands to his eyes and heaved out a long sigh. Then he turned towards Luke with a gentle smile. "I'm sorry, Luke."

"Why were you angry?" Luke asked carefully.

"I…" Anakin was chewing on his lip. He didn't know how to answer. Finally he smiled again. "It was nothing. Come on, let's go talk to Leia."

He took Luke's hand and walked with him into the other room, where Leia was sitting on the couch as frightened by her father's outburst as Luke was.

* * *

Anakin and Obi-Wan didn't talk until just before Anakin went to work, when he cornered the young man in his bedroom.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan began quietly. "I didn't mean to make you angry. It is your story and you should be able to tell or not tell on your own time."

Anakin looked to the front room, when he looked back he looked like he was a thousand years old. "Obi-Wan, I want you to understand something; those kids in the other room are the _only_ thing I live for. I would do anything to make sure they have a better childhood than I did."

People said things like that sometimes, so normally Obi-Wan wouldn't have given the statement much thought, but something about Anakin's demeanor told him that the young man was absolutely serious.

That realization was more terrifying than Anakin's anger.

* * *

The next few weeks passed with no trouble from Palpatine. Anakin admitted to being terrified that Palpatine was going to use his new knowledge about where they were, but as the weeks went by and there was no appearance from the two-faced senator or any indication they were being watched, they decided nothing was going to come of their run-in with Palpatine. Palpatine seemed to be willing to leave his estranged son alone as long as Anakin stayed out of the way.

Still, that was different from saying that they didn't have any problems. Both Obi-Wan and Anakin had caught Luke and Leia's flu. In his infinite bad luck, Anakin had managed to go down with both the flu and a migraine at the same time and had been too sick to get out of bed for several days. That of course meant even more time off of work, which in turn meant that Obi-Wan chances of convincing Anakin that he didn't need to pay for a month of babysitting were slim to none.

They were running out of time. They both knew they couldn't expect Watto to wait with his promotion forever, but it seemed like the very universe was conspiring against Anakin to make it impossible to get there.

This was the state of things the first week of June. On that Friday, Obi-Wan and the twins left the school at the same time as they normally did. The twins were eagerly discussing summer break which was now only a few days away. Obi-Wan was smiling and agreeing at all the right times, but he was actually thinking about the conversation he'd had with Principal Windu earlier that day.

Principal Windu had asked Obi-Wan if he would be willing to teach kindergarten again the next year.

"I know you only agreed to teach for us for one year, but we would love it if you were to stay on another year," Principal Windu had said. "You did a great job."

"When I was hired last year I was told there was a possibility I could move up to teaching in the middle school," Obi-Wan had answered.

"That offer still stands," Principal Windu replied. "Unfortunately, the sixth grade history position in question belongs to a man called Tera Sinube who keeps hanging onto his job even though he should have retired years ago. He wants to stick it out for another year, so the middle school can't take you. However, I have their word that if you're still working for the school district when he retires his position is yours."

Obi-Wan's heart soared at the thought of being promised the position he wanted even if he had to wait for a while. Then he sobered. "What are the chances I'll still be here when he retires? What if I'm laid off?"

Principal Windu sighed. "Well…I can't promise that there's no chance of something like that happening, but we are hiring a new third grade teacher this summer so you won't have the lowest seniority anymore. I would also fight tooth and nail to keep you here, and I'm not the only one."

Obi-Wan was overwhelmed; he couldn't believe his luck. "Then I would love to stay. Thank you for having me." He didn't mention that he'd already decided to keep his current position if he could. He'd grown to like kindergarten and he reason to stay in Coruscant now. There was his fledgling relationship with Satine, for one, and then there was the twins and Anakin. They needed him, even though Anakin was too proud to admit it.

As Obi-Wan and the twins left the school, all Obi-Wan could think about was the things Principal Windu had said and promises he'd made. Obi-Wan realized that even if he never got the sixth grade history position he could be happy in Coruscant. He'd made a new life for himself here, and he was willing to see where it took him next.

He so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the dejected man sitting on a bench outside the school. Actually, he would have walked right by if Leia hadn't noticed the man and asked if he was okay.

At the sound of the little girl's voice, Obi-Wan stopped walking to looked at the man. The stranger was in his early twenties with tan skin, dark eyes and bleached-blonde hair cut military short.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Obi-Wan asked, unsure what else to say.

"Actually, I was just in the office talking to Principal Windu," he said. "I'm looking for someone, but he won't tell me anything."

"Who are you looking for?" Leia chirped.

"I…" The man looked up at Obi-Wan asking for his help.

"Tell me who you're looking for and maybe I can help," Obi-Wan said.

The man's eyes wandered away. "Well, you see, when Senator Palpatine was here a couple weeks ago, a little girl threw up on him."

Leia hid behind obi-Wan's back in embarrassment, and anger built up in Obi-Wan's stomach. He had been promised that the news of what had happened with Leia and Palpatine would never become public knowledge. He and Anakin hadn't wanted Leia to have to live with the whole world knowing that she had puked on a presidential candidate. How did this person know about the incident?

Some of his anger must have shown on his face, because the man's eyes got big and he raised his hands. "Sorry, that didn't come out right. What I mean is that a…friend…of mine works for Palpatine and he mentioned the incident to me. He didn't mean to pass on a terrible story about a sick child, he told me because we knew the girl's father in high school."

Obi-Wan's heart stopped, the only thing he could do was stare at the man.

"He's my best friend," the man continued. "But I haven't seen him in years, and I'm worried about him. If you know who he is, it would mean the world to me if you were to tell me how to get into contact with him."

"I-He-They-" Obi-Wan didn't know how to respond. Finally he got out the words, " _Who_ are you?"

"Oh, I guess I should have said that first," the man smiled thinly. "The name's Rex. Rex Fett."

* * *

"The twins and I met someone very interesting on Friday," Obi-Wan said Saturday night while he and Anakin were washing the supper dishes.

"Oh, really?" Anakin said without looking up from the dishwater. He sounded distracted and he probably was, he spent a large amount of his time worrying now.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He had been stressing over talking to Anakin ever since they had met Rex on Friday. Obi-Wan told himself that he hadn't told Anakin yesterday because it had been too late at night for a serious conversation, but he knew he was putting it off. He had no idea how Anakin would react to knowing that another remnant of his old life had turned up in Coruscant.

However, Obi-Wan couldn't keep putting off telling. There was no way to know how long Rex would be in town, and Anakin deserved to have the chance to see his old friend if he wanted.

"We met your friend Rex," Obi-Wan blurted out.

The plastic cup Anakin had been rinsing slid out of his suddenly lax fingers and clattered against the bottom of the sink. "Rex is here?" he said. "Where did you see him?"

"At WES," Obi-Wan said. "Someone who works for your father told him about the incident with Leia. He was looking for you."

"He was?" Anakin reached out to brace himself against the sink, his voice was suddenly very soft and very young. "What did you tell him?"

"I said that I might know who he was talking about and he gave me his cell phone number," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin staggered to the table and sank heavily in one of the chairs. He put his head in his hands and sat that way for several minutes.

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked carefully.

"I can't call him," Anakin said suddenly breathless.

"Why not?" Obi-Wan said.

"Why is he still looking for me?" Anakin said instead of answering. "I haven't talked to him in years. He should have stopped years ago. I-"

"Why can't you call Rex?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shook his head sharply and kept right on rambling. "It doesn't make sense. He shouldn't still be looking. What did I do to earn the friendship of someone that loyal?"

"Anakin, enough," Obi-Wan said, cutting into Anakin's rambling. "Tell me what's wrong."

Anakin swallowed heavily and looked up at Obi-Wan, his eyes were wide and scared. "The track phone I have now isn't the same phone I had in high school," he said.

Obi-Wan nodded. That was totally understandable, he hadn't expected someone with the kind of background Anakin had to have always been using cheap phone.

"When I'd been in Coruscant for a couple months, I accidently spilled milk on my old phone," Anakin said, his eyes were darting everywhere but Obi-Wan's face. Whatever he was worried about now, he was more ashamed of it than he was about being related to Palpatine. "I lost everything on it, including my contacts. That's when I lost contact with most of my friends from Naboo, and the Fetts."

"I don't see how that causes a problem," Obi-Wan said. "Rex will understand that; it was an accident."

"But loosing contact with them wasn't an accident," Anakin looked like he was about to cry, which was something Obi-Wan had never seen before. It frightened him more than he cared to admit. "I may have lost the numbers of most of my friends, but I had the Fetts' home phone number memorized. Once I got a new phone, I could have called them and told them what had happened, but I didn't. I _chose_ not to call them."

Oh, Obi-Wan understood now.

"I was angry," Anakin said, "because right before I left Coruscant we'd figured out that my father had been paying off Rex's brother Boba—who didn't like having me living in their house—for information about me to make sure I wasn't going to get his reputation destroyed. I was also ashamed that I'd needed the Fetts' help to get my life back together after Padmé died, and I was too proud. I wanted to prove to everyone that I could take care of myself and the twins without Jango and Zam helping me along."

Anakin finally locked eyes with Obi-Wan. There were tears in the young man's eyes. "How am I supposed to face Rex again knowing how terrible I was to his family?"

"I suspect," Obi-Wan said carefully, "that you'd have to start by admitting what you did and apologizing."

Anakin's face crumpled, but not in anger. He buried his face in his folded arms, shoulders shaking. Obi-Wan reached out and rubbed Anakin's back. They didn't speak until Anakin was finished crying.

"You should call Rex," Obi-Wan said quietly. "We both know that I can't force you to. However, I will say that I think it would be a good idea for you to talk to him again. He's still looking for you after all these years; he deserves to know that you're okay, and you need some closure."

Anakin swallowed and sat up slowly. "Alright," he said and sniffed. "If you feel so strongly about it, I will."

* * *

Obi-Wan gave Anakin the cell phone number for Rex and Anakin went into his bedroom to make the call. While he waited for Anakin to finish the call, Obi-Wan began making dessert. He had a feeling that they all needed something sweet right about now.

He was just finishing mixing the chocolate chips into the cookie dough when Anakin came back into the kitchen. "Well?" Obi-Wan asked, turning around. "How did it go?"

Anakin gave him a genuine grin. "I told him, and he's not mad," he said. "Turns out Ferus called Rex after he saw me. Rex didn't answer because he was angry at Ferus for working for my father, and didn't listen to Ferus' message until Thursday night. As soon as he did Rex got in a car and drove here. Jango came to meet him on Friday. They want to see me and twins. We planned to meet tomorrow afternoon before they have to go back to Naboo."

Obi-Wan smiled back. "That's wonderful!"

Anakin's expression became more careful. "I was wondering if you would like to come along," he said. "I…You just seem to know how to deal with everything, and I'd be less nervous if you were there."

Sunday was normally the day Obi-Wan reserved for doing things with Satine, and Obi-Wan wasn't sure he wanted to cancel on such a day when they had so recently began officially dating. However, he was pretty sure Satine would understand that Anakin needed his support for this. "I'd be happy to," he said.

A look of relief crossed over Anakin's face. "Thank you, Obi-Wan."

"You don't need to thank me," Obi-Wan said. "It's my pleasure to help you."

"Which reminds me," Anakin said. "I have something to tell you as well."

"You do?" Obi-Wan asked, suddenly very worried. He'd thought they were done with important conversations for the night.

Anakin nodded in response to Obi-Wan's question. "I've been talking to Ahsoka," he said. "The good news is that Barriss is recovering well, though she'll never walk again. The bad news is that the Tanos' move to Shili is going to be permanent," Anakin looked carefully at Obi-Wan. "Ahsoka's not coming back."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin looked away. "When you took the job watching the twins we were talking about you only having to watch them until the fall and Ahsoka taking over again afterwards. Now that Ahsoka's not going to be back, I was wondering if you wanted me to look into finding someone else."

Obi-Wan couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How can you even ask that?" he said.

"I-" Anakin's eyes were wide, he looked like he wasn't sure what he'd said that was wrong. "I just thought that you have a life—a _girlfriend_ —and that you shouldn't have to spend all your time watching kids that aren't yours."

"Anakin," Obi-Wan sighed. "I can't believe you haven't figured this out yet. This isn't a job to me anymore. I care about you and twins, and I want to see things work out for you. I will keep watching Luke and Leia as long as you need me to—no matter what happens—because you're my friend."

Anakin stared at him, he was trembling and Obi-Wan found himself wondering if the young man was going to cry again. Quickly, Obi-Wan crossed the room to Anakin and hugged him.

Anakin swallowed heavily. "Obi-Wan," he whispered, "I don't know how to express how thankful I am for you. I know that I don't always show it, but I'm very grateful for everything you've done for us." Then he gave Obi-Wan a fierce hug in return.

"You don't need to tell me," Obi-Wan answered. "I already know."

* * *

On Sunday afternoon, Obi-Wan, Anakin and the twins got on the subway and rode to a park where Anakin and Rex had agreed to meet. Anakin had never explained why they weren't meeting at the apartment, but Obi-Wan figured it had something to do with the fact that it really did look fairly old and beat-up and Anakin didn't want Rex and Jango to see it.

There was no sign of the Fetts when they arrived at the park so the twins dashed for the swings and within minutes the air was filled with happy shrieks of "Higher, Daddy!" Anakin was so absorbed in pushing the twins that Obi-Wan was the first one to notice when the Fetts arrived.

Rex and an older, dark-haired man with near-identical features were walking across the grass towards them. Obi-Wan called to Anakin who slowed the twins to a stop. They were a little disappointed at the premature end to their fun, but were excited enough at the promise of meeting some of their daddy's friends that they were quickly bouncing with happiness again.

Anakin, Obi-Wan and the twins walked across the grass towards the Fetts. When they'd almost reached them, Rex surged forward and wrapped Anakin in a huge hug. "Anakin! It's so great to see you!" he shouted.

That broke the tension. Anakin laughed and hugged his old friend back. "Good to see you too, Rex."

By the time they broke apart, the rest of them had caught up. The older man—who Obi-Wan assumed was Jango—gave Anakin a slightly awkward one-armed hug. "It's good to see you, Kid. It's been a long time."

"It has," Anakin agreed. "Too long."

Jango pulled away and looked Anakin up and down. His brow furrowed and didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that he next words were going to be the same as Palpatine's: you look terrible.

Before Jango could say anything, Leia got sick of being ignored. She stepped between Anakin and Jango and puffed out her chest. "I'm Leia," she said, "and this is my brother, Luke. We're five."

Everyone laughed. "Yes," Jango said. "And you've gotten big. The last time I saw you, you were both just babies."

"We're not babies anymore," Luke said proudly.

"No, you're not," Jango agreed.

They moved into more formal introductions. Rex laughed at how he'd been asking Obi-Wan about Anakin without knowing that the twins were right there. After that they talked for a while. Anakin explained his life in Coruscant until the twins got bored and convinced Anakin and Rex to push them on the swings again. Obi-Wan and Jango stood by watching.

"How is he really?" Jango asked after a while.

"He didn't tell you anything that wasn't true," Obi-Wan replied. "They live in a small apartment, it's old but clean. The twins go to WES. Anakin has two jobs. I watch the twins when he's not home."

"And what did he leave out because he thought we were better off not knowing?" Jango asked.

Obi-Wan almost burst out laughing. Jango obviously knew Anakin well. "Both jobs are full time," Obi-Wan said. "He doesn't get a lot of sleep. He's stressed all the time. He still doesn't have his GED."

Jango took all that with a nod. "What else?"

"He forgets to eat." Obi-Wan continued. "And he's been suffering from insomnia recently. He's stubborn and proud. He doesn't like accepting people's help."

"Does he still get migraines?" Jango asked.

"Yes," Obi-Wan replied. "He says they're better than they used to be, though I have no point of comparison."

"How many has he had?" Jango asked.

"I met him in September," Obi-Wan said. "Since then he's had three that I know of, granted the last two were considerably closer together than the first one."

"That's still better than it used to be," Jango said.

They lapsed back into silence, listening to the sounds of the twins squealing with laughter and Anakin and Rex talking. After several minutes, Jango cleared his throat. "What does he need, Obi-Wan?"

"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.

"He looks bad," Jango said. " _Really_ bad, and the last time I saw him looking like this he ended up in the hospital. I want to help him, but I know that he won't tell me what he needs so I'm turning to you I hope you'll be honest with me."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He knew exactly what Anakin needed, but it felt wrong to ask it of Jango. However, he knew that Anakin would never ask, which meant that things wouldn't get better. "What he needs," Obi-Wan said carefully, "is some money to help him pay the bills for a couple weeks."

Jango didn't say anything, he just watched Obi-Wan carefully. "One of his jobs is in a car factory," Obi-Wan explained. "His boss there offered him a promotion that comes with a fairly lucrative pay raise. The problem is that Anakin isn't eligible for the promotion until he gets his GED. He's been trying to prepare for the test, but he doesn't have the time and doesn't have the money to take off of either job. What he needs is someone to help him with bills just long enough that he can get some sleep and pass his GED, then I truly believe that things will get better for them."

Jango nodded slowly, Obi-Wan could see him thinking it over. "Thank you, Obi-Wan," he said after a while. "I appreciate your honesty, you seem like a good friend."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan replied.

* * *

After the park, they walked to an ice cream shop that Jango and Rex had seen. Jango treated everyone and they went back to the park and sat in the grass eating their ice cream.

They were about half done when Jango cleared his throat. The man had been nearly silent since his conversation with Obi-Wan. The most talking he'd done had been before they'd gone for ice cream when he'd called his wife to talk something over.

"So, Anakin," Jango said. "I was talking to Zam before and we decided that we wanted to help you out some. If you were going to take a couple weeks off of your second job how much money would need?"

Anakin froze. "What are you talking about?"

"If you were to just work one job for a couple weeks, how much money would you be short on your bills?" Jango said.

Anakin stared at him blankly for almost a full minute, then he turned to Obi-Wan. "Obi-Wan, what did you tell him?"

"I asked him to tell me what you needed," Jango said, "because we all know you wouldn't answer me honestly. He told me that you needed a little money so you could afford some time off and get your GED. Zam and I talked it over and we will give you some money so you can do that. How much do you need?"

Anakin opened and closed his mouth several times, he looked like a fish out of water. "But, Jango…I can't take your money. I still owe your for that year I spent in your basement!"

"And Zam and I will never accept money for that," Jango said. "You needed a place to stay. You couldn't keep living in your dead wife's apartment with just two newborns as company. You weren't—quite honestly—stable enough for it."

Anakin shook his head but didn't try to deny anything Jango had just said. "It just doesn't feel right."

"Sometimes you just have to take the help that's offered to you," Jango said. "Come on, tell me how much you need, and be aware that I intend to check so be honest."

Anakin thought for several minutes, then gave Jango a number that was—at least to Obi-Wan's limited knowledge of the Skywalkers' finances—accurate. Jango made a note of it on his phone and smiled at Anakin. "Thank you, now we can move onto other things."

They talked about lighter topics for several minutes until the twins—who had finished their ice cream and wandered off to play—came running back.

"Look, Daddy!" Leia laughed reaching Anakin and throwing herself into his arms. She pointed at the sky. "That cloud looks like a bunny!"

Anakin laughed and looked up at the cloud in question. "That it does, Princess."

Luke—who had only been a few steps behind his sister—hugged Anakin as well. "That one looks like a boat!" he shouted and pointed.

They all lay on the grass and looked for shapes in clouds until Anakin fell asleep in spite of the twins' constant pestering. After that, the twins made dandelion chains and pelted each other with handfuls of grass until they too fell asleep, curled up on either side of their father. Obi-Wan, Jango and Rex talked until the sun began to set and Jango admitted that he and Rex would have to leave soon if they were going to get back to Naboo in time for them to go to work the next day. They'd already stayed longer than they'd meant to, and the drive to Naboo was not a short one.

Obi-Wan began to wake Anakin, but stopped when he realized just how idyllic the scene before him was. Anakin and the twins were curled up in a bed of green grass, with the golden glow of the setting sun shining on them. They could have been a picture in a book.

Obi-Wan smiled quietly, and wished he could let them remain like this forever, but Jango and Rex needed to leave and Anakin would not be happy if he didn't get to say goodbye. Regretfully, he reached out and shook Anakin awake.

* * *

The day Obi-Wan Kenobi was laid off from his dream job and his girlfriend refused to marry him should have been the worst day of his life. Strangely, Obi-Wan realized much later that terrible day had actually been lucky.

It wasn't until he was riding on the subway with a sleepy Leia in his lap with Anakin in the seat next to him holding a sleepy Luke while trying to fight his own drowsiness, that Obi-Wan realized that. The events that had caused him to leave Stewjon had been meant to be. They had been devastating at the time, but they had opened doors to so much more than he had never imagined. He had a new girlfriend, who actually liked him in the same way he liked her. He had a great job that, while different from what he'd thought he wanted, was just as satisfying. He had a promise that he'd get another shot at his dream job, if he was patient. He had the privilege of caring for two of the sweetest children on earth. Lastly, he had a new friend who Obi-Wan was certain would always be there for him.

Anakin Skywalker had been dealt a cruel hand, but everyone got their lucky break eventually, and on that subway—as Anakin gave into his weariness and fell asleep on Obi-Wan's shoulder—Obi-Wan Kenobi promised himself that he would be around to see Anakin's.

Hope, Obi-Wan decided, was a wonderful thing.

 _-fin-_

* * *

 **And I'm done! I'm really happy to be done with this story (I have a bad habit of starting things and never finishing them). While I was planning this story, I was worried that** **this part was going to be too short, but its another 9,000 word part so I guess I didn't have to worry!**

 **Pretty much everyone figured out that Palpatine was Anakin's father before I posted this part. I'll admit to being a little disappointed by that, but I did have to build up the background I needed to get him in this part (he couldn't just show up).**

 **This might not be the last you see of this AU. I've fallen in love with it and there are a couple other aspects of it that I would like to explore. I can't guarantee that I'll actually get around to writing them, but I might. If you're interested in knowing if I do post something else, follow me and I'll label anything set in this AU as 'Somebody To Lean On Universe' somewhere in the description.**

 **Anakin Skywalker has always struck me as a character who is terrible at dealing with stress, I tried to get that point across in this story. Hopefully, I succeeded. ;-)**

 **Reference questions:**

 **1\. Who is Ferus Olin? Where is he from?**

 **2\. Where is the story the Little Lost Bantha Cub from? (Extra credit to anyone who can figure this one out, because the book in question is probably older than everyone reading this story!)**

 **Thank you so much for reading! Follow, favorite and review, please!**

 **Emjen**

 **P.S. I wish I could promise that Palpatine is going to lose the election, but I don't think Bail stands a chance.**


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